Life, 1888-01-19 · page 5 of 16
Life — January 19, 1888 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 33 The page contains several unrelated satirical items typical of Life's format: **Top cartoon**: Shows theatrical acrobats performing for an audience. The caption jokes about a woman's frustration at a "frost seat" where she can't see other patrons' hats—suggesting the humor involves theater etiquette and audience obstructions. **"A Growing City"**: A brief dialogue about Kansas City's rapid development, with prairie building lots replacing natural landscape—satirizing frontier expansion and urban growth. **"Under Government Control"**: Depicts a citizen rushing to send a telegram through the Post Office, with an operator suggesting mail would be faster. This likely satirizes postal bureaucratic inefficiency or slow government services. The smaller sketches labeled "A Rise in Stock" appear to show rural or pastoral scenes, though their specific satirical point is unclear from the visible text.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
She: 1 DON’T LIKE A FRONT SEAT. I CAN'T SEE THE OTHER WOMEN'S HATS, He: BUT WE CAN SEE THE STAGE; THAT'S SOMETHING. A GROWING CITY. HEY were twenty miles from the Missouri River, bound east. “Conductor,” said a passenger, “when do we reach Kansas City?” “We're there now.” “There now? Why, there isn’t a house in sight!” “No houses, no. But look at the building lots! The prairies are full of ’em.” UNDER GOVERNMENT CONTROL. ITIZEN (rushing in): Here, I have a telegram for Newark—I wish you'd rush it right through. OPERATOR: Well, if you're in a great hurry, I guess you had better send it by mail. We close in five minutes. Citizen takes it to Newark in his pocket. 33 SCRAPS. R. LOWELL thinks the grasshoppahs next yeah may outnumbah the cattah- pillahs by a lahgah majority than evah befoah. * * T’ takes a great deal of pluck to get the feathers off a live goose. * * A “SPARK” OF GENIUS—The court- ship of Shakespeare. * * OTWITHSTANDING that the Post- office publishes its “gross postal receipts,” Anthony Comstock has not yet attempted to arrest it. THIS ILL BE A GOOD JOKE ONTO OLD SETH PRIME. WALL, I swan! I MUST HEV STAYED A LONG TIME IN THAR, comicbooks.com