Life, 1888-07-26 · page 3 of 14
Life — July 26, 1888 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 45 **"In the Cafe"** (top): A poem satirizing a writer's complaint that an uninvited visitor interrupts his creative work at a café table. The piece mocks the writer's pretension—he came seeking solitude to compose "tender rhyme" for romantic interests, but instead endures conversation about current events (science, crops, religion, war). The joke critiques both self-important writers and the impossibility of finding peaceful retreat in social spaces. **"After the Heat of New York"** (bottom cartoon): A dog appears exhausted in New York summer heat, with someone mentioning "two New York politicians" and making a roaring fire. This likely satirizes political corruption or incompetence as metaphorically overheated and destructive—typical of Life's commentary on contemporary urban politics, though the specific politicians referenced are unclear without additional context.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LIFE iP. “—-H E sits before me as I write, 3. —The world is now a sea of words, And talks of this and that, 3.30— Without a sign of shore. And all my thoughts are put to fight § —N.B.—I feel like Ararat, By his infernal chat. While he resembles Noah. I came to write a tender rhyme ‘To Phyllis or to Mabel, And chose in this retired café 6 —Great Scott! He's going ! The most secluded table. “No, must you go? He came before I'd time to fly, Don't tear yourself away ! And ere I could refuse, What have I written? Oh, some trash— Had filled the very chair that I A sort of Fairy-lay, Was keeping for the muse ! Of how a dreadful ogre Then came the deluge—down it came Caught a luckless youth one day, In one auceasiog pour— And drowned him in a flood of—well, Of science, crops, photography, If you must go—good day!" Religion, soups and war. Forsooth the flood of words that flows ENVOY. From this secluded table Phyllis or Mabel? pray forgive— Will soon be great enough to swamp T had to pay him out ; A dozen Towers of Babel. LU write that tender rhyme to you And still he stays, and still the flood Some other day, no doubt. Is rising as before ; AN AUDACIOUS MISAPPLICATION. _ jx: See mae | TMPLRATVEL 20000 Scene—Drawing-room. Enter Lucy. HAT, you, Horatio! Welcome. I knew I would see you again, now that Laura has sailed. Thanks, Miss Lucy; yes, absence makes the heart grow fonder, as you say. TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING. Oo” CRUSTY (who desires a slightvart- ation in the breakfast bill of fare, to his boarding-house keeper): \t seems to me. madam, that you are endeavoring to make this a table d’oat meal. A TIMELY WARNING. RAgcee URCHIN (¢0 druggést’s clerk): Pa has tooken a dose of that linnymunt you gin him, an’ he’s corfin’ an’ sneezin’ fit to bust hisself, an’ he says he’s a coming to knock Beier you: so gimme a nickel an Setun THEN EKE OR NEW! VOR. “WELL, Dab, WHAT SORT OF A TIME DID YOU HAVE ON EARTH TO-DAY 2” “THE book-reviewer, unlike other literary “I'M ONLY TOO GLAD TO GET HOME AGAIN, TELL Jimmy TO PUT MORE Coat. men, can do his best work when in a 1x NUMBER 37,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,C00, AND MAKE A ROARING FIKE. critical condition. I expect TWO New YORK POLITICIANS To-NIGHT 1” comichooks.