Life, 1888-05-24 · page 18 of 18
Life — May 24, 1888 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising**, not political satire. The dominant image is a Pear's Soap advertisement featuring **anthropomorphized chimpanzees or apes** engaged in grooming behavior, with the caption "Matchless for the Complexion." The cartoon plays on a common Victorian advertising trope: using animals to humorously suggest that the product is so effective and natural that even primates would use it. The "joke" relies on the era's casual racism and pseudo-scientific theories about evolution and racial hierarchy—implying that even our "primitive cousins" recognize superior cleanliness standards. The surrounding advertisements (Remington typewriters, Columbia bicycles, Delbeck champagne, Kinney cigarettes, Perrier-Jouët) indicate this is a **late 19th-century American magazine page** targeting affluent readers. The Pear's ad represents typical period advertising humor that modern audiences would find offensive due to its dehumanizing animal imagery and underlying racial implications.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
REMINGTON STANDARD WYCKOFF, SEAMANS & BENEDICT. 327 BROADWAY, - - NEW YORK. Note.—Our unqualified challenge for a test of all Writ- ing Machines remains unaccepted. Send for copy if interested. CLUMBIA Prcyeue BE GUARANTEED= HIGHEST GRADE ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE: FREE —— Pope Mra.Co. 79 FRANKLIN ST- BOSTON Bren r2\warient or. new Yon Houses||20r WABASH AVE cHicAco . All sizes. ‘d for Hunting, Other Chil TennisClub Houses, Send stamp for illustrated catalog: DELBECK+ = DRY and Procurable Everywhere. carayahroag erquanoorg We offer the DELBECK CHAMPAGNES with a full conviction that there are no better wines imported. WE EXCEPT ONE. E. LAMontTAGNE & Sons, 53, 55 and 57 Beaver Street. Ra KINNEY BROS., STRICTLY PURE HIGH-CLASS CIGARETTES. SPECIAL FAVOURS Club Size and Opera Size, and Boudoir Size for Ladies. SPECIAL “cur” Specially Selected and Special Virginia Leaf. Cured Finest Golden Special Rice Paper. EGYPTIAN FLOWERS CIGARETTES. Cleopatra Size. KINNEY TOBACCO CO., Successor, New York, Baltimore, Richmond and Danville. The only manufacturer of special cigarettes, See that the company’s certificate is on each package, unbroken. CHAMPACNE. De Vivier & Co., 49 Broad St., New Yotk SPECIALTY OF FINE TABLE & CHATEAU CLARET comicbooks.com