Life, 1887-09-29 · page 12 of 16
Life — September 29, 1887 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Page 180 Analysis This page from *Life* magazine contains several satirical pieces: **"The Humorous Fly"** is a fable mocking overconfidence. A young fly boasts to his mother about pranking a fish by skimming the water's surface, but the fish catches and kills him. The moral warns against excessive joking—dark humor typical of Victorian-era fables. **The main article responds to a correspondent** questioning Henry George's claim to be "the friend of the poor man." *Life's* editors deliver biting sarcasm: they sarcastically praise George for writing cheap editions, promoting vague "anti-poverty" rhetoric, and inadvertently providing poor people with years' worth of criticism via hostile newspapers. The piece savagely ridicules George's philanthropic pretensions as empty self-promotion and ineffectual gestures. **Other brief items** mock architectural trends (Queen-Anne pills), Arctic exploration, and honeymoon etiquette—standard magazine humor filler. The page demonstrates *Life's* role as a satirical organ critiquing both social movements and public figures of the Gilded Age.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
180 THE HUMOROUS FLY. A FABLE, H, mother,” saida little fly, ay is not that a fish? To play a little joke on him Is what I greatly wish, Along the surface of the pool With noisy buzz I'll skim, And when he rises, off I'll Ay And get the laugh on him.” (ite TRIED IT.) The childless mother sadly tried Her sorrow to forget, And at that funny little joke ‘That fish is smiling yet. Morat.—Don't be too funny, HH. D.C. HE prevailing style of archi- tecture is growing so in popularity that druggists are now selling Queen-Anne pills. T is said that Baron Nordens- kjold will not make any further Arctic explorations for two years. It is kjold day of the Norden people. REASONABLE. EWLY MARRIED HUSBAND (02 board Cunard steamship, to bride): Come now, Emma, be a man! HE Englishman who said that hugging was “'arm- less" was wrong. It is ‘armful- T is surprising that the tall tower at Fastnet is not blown away, it is such a light- BOARD WANTED. > LIFE: HOW OLD FITZ CHROMO WAS MADE TO APPEAR DOUBLE-PACED. AN ANSWER TO A CORRESPONDENT. E have before us a note from a correspondent which reads as follows: Henry George calls himself the friend of the poor man, After much research I have failed to discover on what this title rests. Will you kindly enlighten me? JD. Certainly, J. D. We are very glad of the opportunity to enlighten you and other sneerers at that disinterested philanthropy which is represented by Henry George. He has done this for the poor man: He wrote a book and subjected himself to the humiliation of a cheap edition so that the poor man Could buy it for twenty-five cents. He contributed largely to the fund of what is familiarly known as “guff" that was and is still being applied to the sole benefit of the poor man. He has organized an anti-poverty society so that the poor man can spend his dollars there instead of in the rum shop. He has given the poor man a perpetual candidate for office, and above all, Henry George has afforded the poor man an opportunity to obtain in one year more good advice from the anti-George papers than the poor man could otherwise have received in the course of five lifetimes. We fear you did not look far, J. D., or you never would have addressed the above epistle to us. ¢ comicbooks.com