Life — December 8, 1887 — page 21: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains a satirical illustration titled "A Ghost Story" depicting a parlor scene with five Victorian-era figures reacting to supernatural disturbances. The sketch shows people seated indoors while mysterious sounds—"blood curdling sounds," "clanking of chains"—occur offstage, with the chorus asking "Who the D— turned up that light?" The satire appears to mock Gothic horror conventions popular in Victorian literature and theatrical productions. The joke centers on the anticlimax: rather than a genuinely terrifying ghost, the supernatural mystery is resolved by mundane electric lighting, suggesting that modern technology (electric lights) dispels both literal and figurative darkness—including the theatrical/literary mystique of ghost stories themselves. The heading "TO LOVERS" at bottom suggests this appears in a section of *Life* magazine addressing romantic or domestic audiences, likely positioning the satire as genteel humor for educated readers familiar with Gothic genre tropes.