Life, 1887-12-01 · page 3 of 16
Life — December 1, 1887 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 301 This page contains three distinct pieces of satirical content: **"The Balance-Sheet"** (top): A poem about financial debt and personal ledgers, likely satirizing Victorian-era bookkeeping obsessions and the tension between material and emotional accounts. **Middle cartoon**: Shows a street scene with what appears to be a conductor or official addressing a crowd of children on public transport, captioned about carrying "five cents" and referenced as a "known the Thimble'd need near a carryful the children I'd a waited until they wuz all six year old before I'd a made this trip!" This mocks overcrowding on public transit and parental frustration with childcare logistics. **"Realism" section**: Critiques H.G. Wells's artistic realism, referencing W.H. Frith's rabbits painting anecdote to debate authenticity in art versus stylization. **Bottom item**: A quip about Emperor of China's divorce costs. The page reflects turn-of-century American middle-class concerns: public transportation, parenting, and artistic theory.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘LIFE: THE BALANCE-SHEET. Hs the ledger, gentle Sasa? Who must balance the account ? Is your score the longer? Pray, sir, Is mine fairly tantamount? Country school and maid and master, Scene and characters complete ; Lest the debt grow somewhat vaster, Let us draw a balance-sheet. Crepit.—Several months essaying To impart from Learning's charts, Knowledge that was worth conveying, Of facts, of theories and arts. How through space each planet scooted, How to reckon pounds and pence ; How the earth was evoluted From a gaseous inference. Dentr.—Glance of tender meaning From your long-lashed eyes of blue ; Smiles that set my brain careening, Soft-hand pressures, one or two. Denit,—Well, the revelation ‘That what's termed a broken heart Is a fanciful creation, Finds no solid counterpart. I'm in debt, my gentle Sasa, To a rather large amount ; But I would not now erase a Single line of the account. I enjoyed the sugar-coating, While my rival gulped the pill— Nightly Mother Goose Ae's quoting, enjoy my slumbers still. Conductor: 1t SKEMS TO ME THAT'S RATHER A BIG CROWD TO CARRY FOR FIVE CENTS. Passenger (with bitter irony): BEGORRA, THIN, IF I'D A KNOWED THE THROUBLE YEZ'D BEEN AT CARRYIN' THE CHILDER' I'D a WAITED UNTIL THEY WUZ ALL SIX YEAR OLD BEFORE I'D A MADE THIS THRIP! Intimate Friend: Have YOU BEEN ENJOYING YOUR HONEYMOON at OLp Point ComPort ? Heiress (lately married): Ye, WE'VE BEEN THERE; BUT, DO you KNow, I OVERHEARD ToM TELL A FRIEND OF HIS IT WAS “ HARVEST-MOON " WITH HIM INSTEAD OF ‘ HONEYMOON.” WHAT DO YOU SUPPOSE HE MEANT? FUNNY, WASN'T IT? Friend (knowingly): OW, YES, VERY—FOR Tom. REALISM. OME of Mr. Howells’s realism reminds us forcibly of a story which recently appeared in the Autobiography of W. P. Frith, R.A. A certain Mr. Wilkins, an artist of some repute, had painted a number of pictures of dead game, among which was a group of dead rabbits which Dr. Herring asserted were “ remarkably true to nature.” “Nature, sir!" replied Wilkins pompously. “Yes, I flatter myself there is more nature in those rabbits than you usually see in rabbits.” HY not arrest Anthony Comstock while taking a bath? He would presumably have no clothing on, and therefore, in his own opinion, would be committing an offense against society. T will cost the Emperor of China $5,000,000 to get mar- nied, but there is compensation in the fact that his divorces are practically free. The only expense is the headsman’s fee and the rent of a lot in the Imperial Cemetery, comicbooks.com