Life, 1889-08-08 · page 10 of 16
Life — August 8, 1889 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Cipher Cablegrams" and "The Adventure of an Ingenious Nobleman" The left column presents **satirical telegraph exchanges** between "Blaine" (likely James G. Blaine, a prominent American politician) in Washington and "Lincoln" (possibly John Hay, Lincoln's secretary, or another figure) in London. The cryptic messages mock diplomatic communication and court etiquette—references to feeding a "jackass," morphine at dinners, and Windsor Castle's confusion between locations suggest absurdist humor about political pomposity and bureaucratic incompetence. The three illustrations on the right depict a gentleman outdoors encountering flies and unfamiliar terrain, captioned "Confound these flies!", "Happy thought!", and "Not such a bad country when you understand it." This appears to be light social satire about British tourists or aristocrats struggling with rural or unfamiliar environments.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
* LIFE: CIPHER CABLEGRAMS. HE ciphers used in cablegrams are sometimes very ingenious and inter- esting. In the following collection, found on a hotel piazza at Bar Harbor last week, it will be seen that it is utterly impossible to discover the meaning without the key: Lonpon, July 13. To BLAINE, Washington. Jackass here. What shall I do with it? LINCOLN. WASHINGTON, July 13. To LINCOLN, London. Give it all the rope it wants. "BLAINE. Lonpow, July 14. To BLAINE, Washington. Queen wants to feed it, Shall I let it go? LINCOLN, WASHINGTON, July 14. To LINCOLN, London. By all means, Tell American newspaper correspondents without fail. BLAINE. Lonpow, July 15. To BLAINE, Washington. Court etiquette requires that I go with it. Can't you suggest something else for it to do? LINCOLN, WASHINGTON, July 15. To LIN ‘, London. No; but you are hereby given permission to be under the influence of morphine during the dinner. BLAINE. Lonpon, July 15. To BLAINE, Washington. Thanks. We are just starting for Windsor. It is rushing up and down Regent Street, looking for a boot-black. LINCOLN. WINDSOR CASTLE, July 15. To BLAINE, Washington, It has hung up its straw hat and linen duster on statue of Prince Consort, in main corridor. Presented equerry in waiting with copy of illustrated weekly and asked him to come and visit in Helena. Then winked at equerry and said something about governors of North Carolina and South Carolina. Equerry didn’t understand. Then it said there was a difference between Windsor Castle and Indianapolis. Correspondents are waiting outside. LINCOLN, LONDON, JULY 16, To BLAINE, Washington. All correspondents suffering from nausea. Sick in bed myself. It offered Queen twenty pounds to write editorial for illustrated paper. Wanted to know how much she paid her cook. Told her she ought to come to Indian- apolis and try eating corn off of cob if she wanted to know what was good. Said if she ever went to New York it would give her letter of introduction to its friend Shephard. ‘Told her Shephard was a brainy cuss, and greatest editor of modern or ancient times. Queen got sick and left table in middle of dinner. It leaves for Paris last of week, Wired Reid, who answers that he is going to resign. Lincotn. ADVENTURE OF AN INGENIOUS NOBLEMAN. oe Yow “ wae we MY st Aldo “CONFOUND THESE FLIES!" “NOT SUCH A BAD COUNTRY WHEN YOU UN- DERSTAND 17,” comicbooks.com