Life — December 22, 1887 — page 2: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Life Magazine, December 22, 1887 The cartoon depicts a nightmarish landscape labeled "While there's Life there's Hope," satirizing the Prohibition movement. The accompanying text mocks Prohibitionists as mentally unbalanced—describing their "angular figure," obsessive use of temperance tracts, and fixation on "converting the world to Prohibition in a single day." The satire argues that Prohibition advocates lack practical sense and will ultimately fail ("die of water on the brain"). The piece also criticizes their neglect of actual social problems facing the poor. A secondary item discusses the Prince of Wales's offense at receiving a gold watch from James Russell Lowell, framing the gift as commercially tasteless despite its royal attachment—a jab at American commercialism and social pretension.