Life, 1888-05-24 · page 3 of 18
Life — May 24, 1888 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 289 This page contains three separate humor pieces: 1. **"Lines on a Portrait"** (top): A poem by W.B. McVickar describing an inland lake scene and a book by Noll Cromwell. The final couplet reveals the joke: the author married the woman whose portrait he'd admired eight years earlier. 2. **"A Merciful Judge"** (middle): A courtroom anecdote where a judge, asked for mercy by a bigamy convict, responds by sentencing him to ten years instead of five—because four women will claim him once he's released, making his imprisonment merciful to him. 3. **"Saved by a Technicality"** and **"The New Polish"** (bottom): Brief joke snippets about escape from prison and a store clerk's exchange about "browning" (unclear reference). The humor relies on wordplay and unexpected logical twists typical of early 20th-century satirical magazines.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LINES ON A PORTRAIT. EIGHT YEARS AFTER, PRETTY inland wooded lake ; A punt to row ourselves about in ; A sister for Dame Grundy’s sake ; The best of weather to be out in; And grass not damp enough to make Young limbs admit rheumatic gout in ; A book—Noll Cromwell, by Carlisle, Which I decried and she commended ; Some rhymes at which she deigned to smile As home our loitering way we wended : All this in true idyllic style, Is round her girlish portrait blended. L'ENVOI, Since then she’s married, so have I ; I married her—excuse the sigh. W. B, Mc Vickar. A MERCIFUL JUDGE. 6¢ T HAVE nothing to say, your Honor,” responded the pris- oner, who had been convicted of bigamy ; “I can only ask the mercy of the court.” “Since you ask the mercy of the court,” said his Honor, “and there are four women who will probably claim you for a husband when you are free once more, I will give you ten years in State’s Prison, instead of five.” SAVED BY A TECHNICAL- ITY. os LARA (to Ethel, who zs de- scribing her hatr-breadth escape from the bull): But he didn’t gore you? ETHEL: Oh no, ma chére; he © cut by us. THE NEW POLISH. 3 ] I AVE you Browning ?” she asked at the village store. Mother: AND THE SERPENT, AS A PUNISHMENT FOR TEMPTING EVE, WAS MADE TO replied the clerk, “we CRAWL{ALL THE REST OF HIS LIFE. have blacking and whiting, but no Bobbie; WELL, MAMMA, HOW DID HE GET ALONG BEFORE? browning. comicbooks.com