Life, 1888-03-08 · page 1 of 20
Life — March 8, 1888 — page 1: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine, March 8, 1888 The main illustration is captioned "APPLIED MATHEMATICS" and depicts a domestic scene with the heading: "Miss A.: The wedding was as bad as a funeral. / Mr. Benedict: Why shouldn't it be? Both have the same result. In one case, two are made one; in the other, one is made nothing. One less each time." This is a cynical joke about marriage. The cartoon satirizes matrimony by comparing a wedding to a funeral—both allegedly reduce the number of living individuals. Mr. Benedict's quip suggests marriage destroys individual identity (two become one) while death also eliminates a person (one becomes nothing), so the mathematical result is identical loss. The illustration shows what appears to be a domestic interior with figures, reinforcing the married-life theme. This reflects late-19th-century bachelor humor mocking marriage as a loss of freedom.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
NEW YORK, MARCH 8, 1888. NUMBER 271. Entered at New York Post Office as Second-Class Mail Matter. Copyright, 1888, by Mrrcum: & Miter, phicanys SVM. APPLIED MATHEMATICS. Miss A.; THE WEDDING, WAS AS SAD AS A FUNERAL, Mr. Benedict: WHY. SHOULDN'T IT BE? BOTH HAVE THE SAME RESULT. IN ONE CASE, TWO ARE MADE ONE; IN THE OTHER, ONE IS MADE NOTHING. ONE LESS EACH TIME, comicbooks.com