Life, 1889-06-13 · page 12 of 16
Life — June 13, 1889 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Page 350: Satirical Commentary This page contains several short humorous pieces targeting contemporary issues and figures: **"Girl at Window"**: A working-class woman (Tillie, with dialect spelling) complains that childcare responsibilities prevent her from attending a baseball game. Her bitter quip—that she'd have had an easier life in an orphan asylum—satirizes the grinding hardship of motherhood and domestic servitude for poor women. **"Taxing the Resources"**: An editor jokes about using up capital I's from the type-foundry on a letter from Adam Badeau (likely a contemporary writer), implying his work is verbose or excessive. **"No Longer Afraid of Her"**: A society belle realizes she's losing her attractiveness—a second woman has asked her to be bridesmaid rather than compete with her for male attention. **Gladstone Reference**: Mocks the aging British Prime Minister William Gladstone's excuse for refusing syndicated articles, suggesting his complaint about diminishing "brain power" is pretentious when syndicate work requires no intellectual effort anyway. The page's tone is characteristic of *Life's* satirical focus on social class, gender roles, and public figures.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LIFE: ely Girl at window: ARE YOU GOING TO THE BALL MATCH TO-DAY, TILLIE? Tillie: BALL MATCH INDEED, WID DESE TWO YOUNG UNS TO TAKE CARE OF! I SHOULD SAY NOT. IF I HAD BEEN BORN AN ORFIN ASYLUM I’D A HAD A BETTER TIME! TAXING THE RESOURCES. HE EDITOR (¢o foreman): How 1s our supply of cap I's? FOREMAN: Full, sir; two hundred pounds came from the type-foundry last week. Epitror: Then let this letter go in; it’s from Adam Badeau. OHN KEATS sang years ago of “ Bacchus and his pards,” and yet ill- informed persons suppose that “ pard” is a comparatively new word, intro- duced into the dictionary from the early Californian by Francis Bret Harte. NO LONGER AFRAID OF HER. ~ OCIETY BELLE (g/oomily): 1 must be going off horribly in my looks. That is the second girl within a week who has asked me to stand as her bridesmaid. HERE is amusement to the verge of pathos in the reply of Mr. Gladstone to a newspaper syndicate’s ‘offer for a series of articles. “ At my age,” he said, | “the stock of brain power does not wax, but wanes,” | and he went on to explain that he was too busy to undertake | new work, Somebody ought to explain to Mr. Gladstone that the bulk of current syndicate stuff is made with type-writers, without any appreciable diminution of any one’s gray matter. HE hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that doesn’t rule the flat—if the janitor knows himself. ILLUSTRATED ADVERTISEMENTS. FOR SALE: SMALL HOUSE; NEWLY PAINT- ED; HIGH AND AIRY; PLENTY OF WATER ON PREMISES, ROOM FOR RENT—QUIET NEIGHBOR- HOOD; DON'T RING. ADDRESS, ‘‘ PERMANENT.” WANTED—A PHYSICIAN TO LOCATE; GOOD FIELD FOR SKILFUL MAN. comichooks.com