Life, 1889-03-28 · page 11 of 18
Life — March 28, 1889 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Page 185: Social Satire This page contains several unrelated satirical vignettes typical of Life magazine's humor: **"Something of a Nomad"** mocks a vagrant who claims to have lived in every U.S. state—commentary on transience and rootlessness in American society. **"Much-Needed Ballast"** jokes about wide trousers, with one character (Paperwate) suggesting that tight clothing would reveal an unflattering truth about his friend Wiggins's physique. The humor relies on body-shaming and fashion commentary. **"Patriotism"** satirizes intellectual pretension: Clarence dismisses his wife Eloise's interest in foreign literature (the Trans-Baikal llama article) in favor of American boxing, suggesting narrow nationalism and anti-intellectualism. The remaining brief items ("Is marriage a failure?" and "A Sickly Smile") are one-liners typical of period humor magazines. Overall, these sketches target American social types: vagrants, fashion-conscious dandies, and provincial patriots.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SOMETHING OF A NOMAD. AGISTRATE (fo prisoner): Were you born in Pennsylvany ? PRISONER: Yes, sir. MAGISTRATE: Brought up in the State? PRISONER: Yes; I have been brought up in Pennsylvany, and every other State in the Union, EN ROUND OVER TO KEEP OF PARROTS WHO MANAGE MUCH-NEEDED BALLAST. CAWN'T see why there should be so many jokes about wide twousers,” said Paperwate. “Surely a gentleman is not ex- OscaR DONS HIS PRETTIEST SMILE AND PREPARES 4 in tights!” TO BOW, FOR ALTHOUGH HE IS NEAR-SIGHTED HE Pected to appear in tights! THINKS HE RECOGNIZES “No, indeed,” returned Wiggins, with a critical glance at his friend's media of support, “I'm afraid tights would bring about a comparative disappearance of nearly half of you!” PATRIOTISM. LARENCE, dear, here is a very in- teresting article about ‘The Llama of the Trans-Baikal,’” remarked Eloise. “TI don’t care anything about it,” replied Clarence. “Why don’t the magazines print something about Amer- ican Pugilists ?” Is marriage a failure? Of course it isnot. Marri- age is an nressignment: pw A SICKLY SMILE—Hop HIS PET GIRL, BUT IT WAS NOT SHE. Bitters. comicbooks.com