Life, 1888-10-25 · page 12 of 14
Life — October 25, 1888 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Satirical Humor Page (circa late 1800s) This page contains six separate humorous sketches mocking various social pretenses and character flaws: **"A Wife's Point of View"**: A woman discovers her husband embezzled vast sums, yet she's unsurprised—her millinery bills alone exceeded his salary. The joke satirizes both marital financial blindness and women's extravagant spending habits. **"Resenting an Insult"**: Jackson claims he resented being called a liar, but his "resentment" amounts to philosophically accepting it as mere opinion. The satire mocks self-deception and weak masculine honor. **Other sketches** mock: a beggar claiming "kleptomania" as illness to gain sympathy; a Black couple's awkward conversation using period dialect; a druggist's boy tactlessly suggesting wrinkle cream to an elderly woman; a bored suitor departing after a young woman's only enthusiastic comment; and an Irish couple's pride in building a church. The consistent satirical target is human pretense, self-deception, and social hypocrisy across class and racial lines. The humor relies heavily on dialect stereotypes, particularly regarding Irish and African American characters.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
—_ r & Pal = GON R. BUMP has been calling “~ \M*, * LIFE: A WIFE'S POINT OF VIEW. OOR JENNY! It must be an awful shock to you,” sympathized her friend. “And to think that you trusted him all these years while he was embezzling such enormous sums!" “Yes,” she sobbed, “I knew my millinery alone came to more than his salary, but I never suspected him.” RESENTING AN INSULT. OBINSON: Jackson, I hear that Brown called you a liar last night. JACKSON (bz¢/erly): Yes, he called me a liar. Ropinson: And didn’t you resent it? JACKSON (warmly): Resent it, you bet Idid! I told him that was simply a mat- ter of opinion and not of fact. No man can call me a. liar and get away with it. HE KNEW THE WORD TO DRAW SYMPATHY. 6 Ge Couldn't yez help a poor man, sor, who's just afther gettin’ over a bad sickness? AGENT OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO VICE: H'm! What was the matter, my poor fellow ? TRAMP: Sure, it's on the Oisland Oi've been, sor, for three months back, recoverin’ from the effects av an attack av Kleptomania! DOESN'T APPEAR SO. E (at a Tompkins Street soirée): Yo’ is not lookin’ quite yo’ usual se’f dis ebenin’, Miss Johnsing, Ise sorry ter see. SHE: No, Mistah Jackson; de fac’ is, Ise feelin’ blue. HE (sympathizingly): Dat distresses me, ‘deed it do; but, aw—yuse not lookin’ blue, Miss Johnsing. UNFORTUNATE SUGGESTION. E LDERLY MAIDEN (fo drugg#st's boy): Well, 1 do — declare, if I ain't forgot what I came for! Boy (full of business): Hair dye? rouge? lotion to re- move freckles? wrinkle eradicator? bottle Bloom of Youth? Elderly Maiden hails a passing street-car. of misinformation being full, shall be upset at the polls. Intelligent voters have been known to keep their heads above the deluge of tariff talk long enough to declare their conviction that whether Mr. Cleveland or General Harrison is elected, the future tariff legislation will be a compromise, con- servative and safe, and that what is really at issue are those same old loaves and fishes that we have scrambled for so often. The question that will be settled at the polls is not what the duties shall be, but who is to collect them. A STARTER. for nearly two hours. They are talking music, languidly. THE YOUNG Lapy (suddenly brightening up) : Oh, Like French opera; it has such a go to it! 1 like anything that has go! He goes. NOTHING IS PERFECT. GENT (¢0 woman who has bought a Bible on instalments): \'ve called, ma’am, for the monthly payment. Woman: All right; I've got it tied up in a rag for you. I'll fetch it. AGENT: You are pleased with the book, of course, ma’am? WoMAN: Well, yes; I like the kivver, but neither me nor the old man are much sot on the readin’ matter. Terence: Dixny! wup YE YE WAS AWEE? Dinny (with astonishment): SHURE, IT DO BATE THE DtviL! Terence; WELL, THAT WAS THE INTINSHUN, er pasha tere DBLP Ome A SUCCESS. MOIND THE FOINE CHURCH WE HAVE ERICTED SENSE comicbooks.com