Life, 1887-12-01 · page 12 of 16
Life — December 1, 1887 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Fred's Mistake" Page Analysis This Life magazine page contains satirical commentary on contemporary issues, circa early 1900s. **"A Nickel Famine"**: Mocks Boston's admission of a five-cent coin shortage, sarcastically suggesting Bostonians have been inserting nickels into slot machines out of curiosity—wasting coins meant for commerce. The joke ridicules Boston's reputation for snobbish superiority while implying New Yorkers ("Knickerbockers") should guard their nickels similarly. **Other brief items**: Include jabs at the Society for the Suppression of Vice, the Catholic Church's proselytizing efforts, and mince-meat recipes—typical humorous filler. **"An Oriental Tale"**: A lighthearted poem about a Turkish official losing his life over flirtation; the moral warns against infidelity in satirical verse. **"Home Life in China"**: The illustration (credited to Cesare) appears to depict exoticized Chinese domestic life, likely playing on Western stereotypes popular in the era. The page exemplifies Life's blend of political/social satire with humor and cultural commentary aimed at educated American readers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
FRED'S MISTAKE, A NICKEL FAMINE. TH Boston Transcript asserts that five-cent pieces are in great demand. “ Business men all over the country find that they cannot now get enough of them to properly transact their business. In Boston the shortage causes in- convenience and will cause a great deal more before the Christmas and New Year's shopping is over, unless the Phila- delphia Mint provides relief,” says our contemporary. So! Boston at last acknowledges that it goes to Phila- delphia for something. The admission, though late, is full of significance. The shortage of nickels at the Hub shows that beneath the cold and haughty exterior, beneath the cloak of indifference which has hitherto served to hide the Bosto- nian soul, there lurks the canker-worm of curiosity. Our Boston brethren, it is plain, have been dropping their nickels into the slot to see how it works—and it has worked a famine. Let this be a moral to New York. Knickerbockers, you look after the nickels, the slots will take care of themselves. [Sst it about time to organize a society for the suppres- sion of the Society for the Suppression of Vice ? NE of the leading lights of the Roman Catholic Church is the Proselyte. RECIPE for mince-meat says “this sort will keep a year.” This is the kind we don’t want. consumed on the spot. We want the kind that is AN ORIENTAL TALE. HERE once was a gay Turkish Pacha, Who winked—what on earth could be racha !— At the Sultan's best wife, And for that lost his life. The moral is: Don't be a macha ! Rem™or has it that James Russell Lowell is writing a treatise on Home Rule. The book is to be published in the spring, and will be called “ Poems by a Weary Heart.” HOME LIFE IN CHINA. comicbooks.com