Life, 1887-10-13 · page 11 of 16
Life — October 13, 1887 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 207 This satirical page contains several distinct humor pieces: **"Cui Bono"**: A flirtatious exchange where a woman asks why her male companion isn't married. He jokes that his mother never needed a whip (wasn't domineering) yet married three times—implying women don't need to be controlling to secure husbands, or sarcastically suggesting serial marriage doesn't require a strong personality. **"Dignified Criticism"**: Mocks overwrought theatrical reviewing by quoting the *Commercial Advertiser's* absurdly graphic description of actress Mrs. Langtry's death scene—she supposedly convulses like someone with watermelon-induced stomach pain, gallops around calling for "Algy," and dies in an exaggerated pose. The satire targets pretentious drama criticism. **"Concerning Fees"**: A character named Topper complains about Italian fees being too low, then stereotypes Italians as willing to accept bribes for anything except bathing—a period ethnic joke. **"Friends"**: A sentimental poem about a proposal, with a punchline: the woman stops him mid-confession, revealing he's her fourth suitor. The page mixes romantic comedy, theatrical satire, and ethnic humor typical of early-20th-century American magazines.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
CUI BONO. The Fair Driver: | WONDER, CLARA, THAT YOU ARE NOT A wuir, The Drivee: OW, 1 NEVER FELT THE NECESSITY, The Fair Driver: Twe wecessity! WHat Do You MEAN? The Drivee: WHY, MAMMA WAS NEVER A WHIP, AND SHE HAS BEEN MARRIED THREE TIMES! DIGNIFIED CRITICISM. HE Commercial Advertiser stumbles on something good once in a while. Apropos of Mrs. Langtry's death scene in “ As in a Looking-Glass,” our contemporary says: Her contortions here warrant the inference that she has taken a watermelon, rather than chloral. She flops about from chair to chair, with her hands upon the pit of her stomach, like a small boy who has partaken too freely of green apples; drops upon a sofa and tears the plush with her teeth ; gallops three or four times around the room calling for Algy, and then falls over a trick-chair that comes down like a combination bed, and expires just.as Algy rushes in to stand ‘over her with one arm stretched out at an angle of ninety degrees, and the other at seventy degrees, thus completing what the pro- gramme says is an “affecting tableau.” Could dramatic criticism reach a higher plane of dignity and wit than this? CONCERNING FEES. «6 TEES?” said Topper, indignantly. “Fees? Why in Italy they are simply awful—and so paltry. There's nothing an Italian won't take—ah, except a bath, you know.” FRIENDS. E'D climbed up to a rocky nook, ‘Were hidden well, so none could look, For I'd resolved to know my fate, And was impatient, could not wait. So round her waist I put my arm (She said she thought there was no harm), And told her, trembling, of my love, Called her ‘* sweetheart,” ‘* dear" and ‘* dove!" “* I like you very much,” said she, “And hope that we shall always be—" ** Please stop !"".I cried, ‘* pray say no more,” “I know the rest : you're number four.” jt. EACONSFIELD said that to believe in the heoric makes heroes. The Earl is good authority, for he rose. English style of humor). HOW ABOUT THIS? have very little doubt that if Mr. Sharp should die in Ludlow Street Jail, the World and Times would blackguard Death for defeating the ends of Justice. Sharp's record may not be as clear as it should be, but when the record of the daily papers is looked up in the “corruption books,” how many of them will be able to show even so clean a page as he who stands between Sing Sing and the grave ? (This is the early INS AND OUTS OF TRAVEL. comicbooks.com