Life, 1888-03-08 · page 7 of 20
Life — March 8, 1888 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Explanation for Modern Readers This page contains three distinct satirical pieces from *Life* magazine: 1. **"He Comes High"**: A brief joke about French tenor Maurel's $250,000 salary to America—mocking that the payment period is unspecified (week or century). 2. **"A Grateful Public"**: Satire on Dr. Gould, who escorted a smallpox patient via Third Avenue elevated train. The joke criticizes overcrowded NYC transit and suggests the doctor's act, while kind, highlights public health failures. 3. **"The Trinidad Mosquito"**: A longer satirical piece by Mr. Froude describing an unusually vicious mosquito. The accompanying comic panels show "How the Great Reformer Would Have It"—likely mocking Anthony Comstock (visible as reference) and his censorship efforts by depicting absurdist "reformed" scenarios, suggesting his moral crusades were equally ridiculous.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘LIFE: HE COMES HIGH. T is reported that Maurel, the French Tenor, is coming to America on a salary of $250,000. The report fails to say whether this salary is for a week or a century. 135 HE question that agitates the Chinaman is whether the tale which adorns his head in this world will be continued in our next. A GRATEFUL PUBLIC. 4 A CERTAIN Dr. Gould, who escorted a man suffering from small-pox a ont IN VOLAPUK. OME tender words I had to say, Yet had not voice to frame them ; My heart was filled with sentiments— No words had I to name them. Distracted, dumb and sorely tried, Where could I refuge find or seek? She only smiled and volunteered A murmur : “‘ Spodobs Volapitk.” FE. Jr. THE TRINIDAD MOSQUITO. R. FROUDE, in his delightful chapters on the West Indies, has this about Trinidad Mosquitos : “The particular room assigned to myself would have been* * * delightful but that my possession of it was disputed even in daylight by mosquitoes, who for bloodthirsty ferocity had a bad pre-eminence over the worst that I had ever met with elsewhere. I killed one who was at work upon me and examined him through a glass. Bewick, with the inspiration of genius, had drawn his exact likeness as the devil—a long black stroke for a body, a nick for a neck, horns on the head, and a beak for a mouth, spindle arms and longer spindle legs, two pointed wings and a tail. Line for line there the figure was before me, which in the unforget- able tailpiece is driving the thief under the gallows and I had a melancholy satisfaction in identifying him. For malice, mockery and venom of tooth and trumpet, he is without a match in the world!” From this description one would almost believe that Mr. Froude had spent a day somewhere along the Jersey Coast. last sum- mer. We cannot believe that so vivid a pic- ture of New Jersey’s most prominent product could have been drawn under any other cir- cumstances than those which obtain in the neighborhood of Asbury Park. from his office to the Hospital on a Third Avenue Elevated Rail- road train, has been fined one dollar. It is very evident that the Judge was a traveler on that branch of the Manhattan system, and recognized a philanthropist in Dr. Gould. The Third Avenue cars are overcrowded, arid the gatemen unnecessarily brutal. A little small-pox judiciously placed can do much for a long suffering public. e hrodite vigin, ene Och J HOW THE GREAT REFORMER WOULD HAVE IT. comicbooks.com