Life, 1889-10-17 · page 12 of 18
Life — October 17, 1889 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 222 This page contains multiple satirical pieces typical of Life's late-19th-century format: **"Labor and Capital"** section features several disconnected jokes and observations. The "Political Pot" aphorism mocks how corruption rises to prominence. A Shortweight vendor cartoon satirizes consumer fraud—a grocer sells "cheese full of holes" and refuses refunds, claiming that's how it comes naturally. **"The Small Boy and the Pie"** is a mock-tragic playlet about a boy who eats an entire pie, becomes ill, survives, and immediately demands more pie. It appears to satirize Irish-American working-class excess (the dialect humor and St. Patrick's Brotherhood reference suggest Irish immigrant targets). The page concludes with observations on clothing/poverty as moral indicators and dismisses certain poetry as poor. The overall tone reflects Life's editorial stance: middle-class mockery of immigrants, con artists, and working-class behavior—typical gilded-age satirical content that punches downward at perceived social inferiors rather than powerful figures.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘LIFE: LABOR AND CAPITAL. £6 IFE.” The great lawyer smoothes the journal's fold. “In those four letters all my life is told, Divide them equally, You have me, li and fe.” Lulu W. Mitchell, ELLOW October, we greet thee! This is the time cf the chestnut harvest and in the chestnut-orchards may be heard the hoarse cries of contention among our fm humorous contemporaries and the \ other vendors of the precious nut. The leaves on the trees blush at ‘O \the sight and nature draws a ‘curtain of haze over the scene. / But this is not enough and Night comes early to make an end to the contest backed up by its faithful allies the North Wind and Early Frost. WHEN the political pot boils, the scum always comes to the top. HE medium whose tricks are exposed is not a happy medium. HAT a luxuriant head of hair Tallman has!" “Yes, his wife is a dwarf. Ay Chere Customer : L Say, MR, SHORTWEIGHT, THAT CHEESE 18 FULL OF HOLES. Shortweight: YeS, THAT'S THE WAY IT COMES. Customer; Wet, | DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR HALF A POUND OF HOLES, “FoR HIVIN's SAK, PHELIM, AN’ WHAT HAS HAPPENED YEZ?" “NOTHIN, ONLY I ATTINDED A MEETIN' OF THE FRIEND BROTHERHOOD OF SAINT PATRICK, AN' I WAS ELICTED AN HON- ORARY MEMBER WID A SLIGHT OPPOSITION, THAT'S ALL. Me DOCTHOR Says I'LL BE OUT AGIN IN A MONTH OR SO!" THE SMALL BOY AND THE PIE, or, THE Pre AND THE SMALL Boy. A Tragedy, in which is Demonstrated the Fact that Experience is not always the Best Teacher. Doctor. Brace up! Be glad!” “Oh, doctor, dear, I sadly fear My end is near.” With much ado, Emetic, too, The doctor's through, And bids adieu, Dramatis Personae,—SMALL-Boy, Pir. act lL, PON the pie He cast his eye And heaved a sigh: “My eye, ob, my!” (Exit the pie.) act i, Upon the floor The boy does roar, And bellows more Than boys a score, ACT IL. (Enter M.D. of high degree.) “What, ho! my lad, Be not so sad. ACT IV. I shall not try To falsify. He did not die, But lived to cry: “I want more pie!” Sam. S. Stinson. WE suspect it is poor poetry which makes Oscar Wilde and James Whitcomb Ailey. Be calm, brethren. EVER judge a man by the clothes he wears. If you want to form an opinion of him, find out whether he has paid for them, comicbooks.com