Life, 1888-03-29 · page 12 of 16
Life — March 29, 1888 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis: Life Magazine Satire This page contains three distinct humor sections: **"Climatic"** is regional satire mocking how different American city girls dress differently ("gums," "goloshes," "rubbers," "erasers") to cope with wet weather. The joke plays on Boston girls' supposed pretension—they should wear a "sark" (shirt) instead of a "sack," but other cities' girls are equally peculiar. **"Amor Infaustus"** is a romantic poem joke: a man admires a woman with "eyes of brown" until she stands up—she's literally taller than him ("stands a head above me"), ruining the romance. **"Theatrical Terms"** illustrates eight theatrical expressions through comic situations: "too many gags," "an old man's part," "missing his cue," "keeping the stage waiting," "doubling up," "his first appearance," "making a hit," and "a heavy villain." These appear to be visual puns on theatre jargon for modern readers unfamiliar with period stage terminology.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
CLIMATIC. HE Philadelphia girl wears gums, the Chi- cago girl wears go- loshes, the New York girl wears rubbers, and the Boston girl wears erasers. To be consistent the Bos- ton girl should wear a’sark instead of a sack; but then the Baltimore girl has her gaown, so things are fairly well-bal- anced. A DROP too much wears away the man, AMOR INFAUSTUS. STAND for a moment, and looking down Into the depths of those eyes of brown, The cares of the day ebb far away— My life if she’d but love me! And then she rises—how soon, alack ! The tide of our sorrows comes rushing back ! It is just the same, with but Fate to blame— She stands a head above me. Houlihan; TROTH, IT IS, MITHER. OI WAS DHRIVIN’ A HACK THE DAY WHIN Mrs. Houlihan: ARRAH, MICKEY, AND CAN THIS BE YOURSILF, ALL BLAZHIN’ WID DIAMONDS? G. H. THE BLIZZARD STHRUCK NEW YORK. THEATRICAL TERMS. ‘AN OLD MAN'S PART.” IPS ALITTLE Boy sin ““ DOUBLING UP.” ‘HIS FIRST APPEARANCE.” “MAKING A HIT.” “(A HEAVY VILLAIN.” comicbooks.com