Life, 1888-03-29 · page 11 of 16
Life — March 29, 1888 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 183 of Life Magazine: Analysis This page contains four separate joke items typical of Life's satirical humor: 1. **"In the West"**: A couple's dialogue plays on geography—the man jokes that the sun never sets in the East (a reference to imperial expansion and the phrase "the sun never sets on the British Empire"), so western sunsets are by definition superior. 2. **"Easy Enough to Find"**: A Brooklyn policeman's absurd directions mock bureaucratic incompetence or deliberate unhelpfulness—directing someone to look four miles away for a nearby address. 3. **"A Night's Rest"**: Dark humor about vagrancy and poverty. A tramp asks for shelter; a kindly woman grants it but gives him matches "in case it should turn cold"—a grim joke implying he might freeze to death or burn the barn down. 4. **"Cruel"**: A rival author's jealous complaint that Scribble's novel failed commercially, leaving 1,500 unsold copies with the publisher—satirizing literary competition and publishing economics. The cartoons (left side) appear to illustrate the tramp scenario with physical comedy.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
IN THE WEST. She: DO YOU EVER SEE A FINER SUNSET THAN THAT IN THE East? He: No. THE SUN NEVER SETS IN THE East. EASY ENOUGH TO FIND. 73 AM looking for No. 559,” said a stranger to a Brooklyn police- man. “ Yes, sir, there is No. 560. No. 559 should be about four miles up the street on the opposite side of the way.” A NIGHT'S REST. 6c ILL you allow me to sleep in the ten-acre lot back of the barn, ma‘am?” pleaded the tramp. “Certainly,” responded the woman, kindly; “and here are a couple of matches, in case it should turn cold before morning.” CRUEL. RIEND: What impression did Scribble’s last novel leave on your mind ? RivaL AUTHOR: None whatever; but it left one of fifteen hundred copies on the publisher's hands, 1 hear. A TAKING FELLOW —The photographer.