Life, 1889-10-03 · page 11 of 18
Life — October 3, 1889 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 193: Life Magazine Humor Section This page contains four unrelated comic strips (left) and several short jokes (right), typical of Life's satirical humor format. The **comic strips** use visual gags involving slapstick and exaggeration—characters with oversized loads, physical mishaps—common to early 20th-century comic humor. The **written jokes** target everyday situations: an ice-cream vendor's seasonal business, tourist behavior at the Eiffel Tower, laundry workers' complaints, and children's logic about digestive problems. One joke plays on the phrase "immense" (meaning both huge and sick). Another mocks parents' explanations to children. The humor reflects **pre-modern social contexts**: servants/workers complaining, casual childhood illness from eating fruit, and class-based observations about tourism and domestic labor. No specific political figures or events are referenced.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
His Aunt: BOBBY, HAVEN'T YOU SOME NEWS TO GIVE ME? Bobby (who isn't feeling very well): 1 VOMICKED TWICE TO-DAY. EPITAPH ON THE ICE-CREAM JOKE. Feanewere old jokelet, we shall miss thee sore. We pause and drop a tear, nor know the reason ; For when old Winter's clouds and storms are o'er, Ghostlike, thou wilt return again next season. ON THE EIFFEL TOWER. OTHER AND THE GIRLS (ecstatically) : My; isn't it high? POPPER (tn @ gloom that reaches to the base of the tower) : Well, what of it? Have you seen anything in Paris this summer that wasn't high? AT THE LAUNDRY. IRST COLLAR: How do you get along nowadays ? SECOND COLLAR: Not very fast. This humid weather makes me limp. LT JOHNNIE: Say, dad, how is it that it's only the small boy who is made sick by eating green apples? Brown: I guess it’s because he's the only one who eats them. IRST ICE BILL: How do you feel ? SECOND ICE BILL: Immense! comicbooks.com