Life, 1888-07-12 · page 1 of 14
Life — July 12, 1888 — page 1: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Missed Part of It" — Life Magazine, July 12, 1888 This cartoon satirizes theater-goers who arrive late to performances. The dialogue shows Mrs. H. (a "brilliant amateur") asking Mr. H. what he thought of the second act's opening style, only to learn he missed it entirely by arriving late. When she expresses dismay at his tardiness, he dismissively replies he "went away too soon." The joke targets the social embarrassment and absurdity of attending theater unprepared—arriving after performances have begun, then pretending to have opinions about what one missed. It mocks both the pretentiousness of amateur theater enthusiasts and the carelessness of fashionable society attendees who treated theater as a social event rather than one requiring punctuality and genuine attention.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
NEW YORK, JULY 12, 1888. Eotered at the New York Post Office as Second-Class Mail Matter. Copyright, 1888, by Mrycumit & Miter. MISSED PART OF IT. Mrs. H. (a brilliant amateur): CHARLEY, WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE STYLE IN WHICH I OPENED THE SECOND ACT LAST NIGHT? Mr. H. (who hates the whole business): 1 MISSED THE OPENING OF THE SECOND ACT, Mrs. H.: HOW UNFORTUNATE! YOU GOT THERE TOO LATE? H.: NO, WENT AWAY TOO SOON, comicbooks.com