Life, 1888-08-02 · page 5 of 14
Life — August 2, 1888 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis: Life Magazine, Issue 61 **"The Heartless Girl"** cartoon shows a woman in a boat labeled "POND LILY" with a man who has fallen in. The joke references Pond's Extract, a popular patent medicine of the era. The man asks if she looks like "woe" while she responds she looks more like "Pond's Extract"—a pun suggesting her composure is unnaturally perfect despite his predicament. The remaining page contains humorous dialogues ("Keeping Within Bounds," "Nerve and Pluck") and a poem "The Woman of It!" about a woman in a bathing suit concerned only about her shoes getting wet. These are typical early-20th-century Life magazine fare: light social satire targeting consumer products, gender relations, and fashion vanity, with no apparent political content.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE HEARTLESS GIRL. He (who in an attempt to get some pond-lilies has fallen tn): She: On, No, MR. JONES; YOU LOOK MORE LIKE “ Ponp's Extr. | KEEPING WITHIN BOUNDS. / \ AID a distinguished patient to his phy- | sician: “Doctor, will you hand me my medicine, please?” “Excuse me, sir,” responded the man of science, “but I am only connected with the bulletin part . of your case. Another doctor will be here directly.” NERVE AND PLUCK. AILROAD SUPERINTEND- ent (to applicant): Have you sufficient nerve and courage to do your duty in times of danger? APPLICANT (with a superior smile): Nerve and courage, sir? 1 jest ate three of those railroad sand- wiches down-stairs. SUPERINTENDENT (to clerk): Give this man an en- “gine on the “limited” night run. x R® Dox't I Look THE VERY ESSENCE OF WOE, MISS BROWN ? THE WOMAN OF IT! 1 ~ HE bathed in the sea And she walked on its beach (Oh, the sly little flirt !) In her blue bathing skirt That barely would reach From her waist to her knee. n But she ‘* just had the blues” And sat down in despair— In the direst distress— For her new tennis dress Was indecent to wear, Though it came to the tops of her shoes ! W. H.-G. CENTLY returned travelers bring the information that the Dey of Algiers is something of a night-hawk. OWEVER extravagant a contortionist may be he always manages to make both ends meet. comicbooks.com