Life, 1890-03-06 · page 13 of 16
Life — March 6, 1890 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains several satirical pieces typical of late 19th-century American humor: **"An Artist's Trials"** (left panel): A comic strip showing an artist repeatedly painting signs ("BOSTON," "BOSTON PILLS," "POST NO BILLS") on a fence, with each attempt being destroyed or obscured. The satire mocks struggling commercial artists forced to do humble sign-painting work. **"The Poet"**: Self-deprecating verse about a poet whose work is "light and empty" because his purse is equally empty—satirizing impoverished artists. **"Fearful" anecdote**: A darkly humorous museum story where a loose "wild dog from Borneo" ate three-quarters of a preserved ("ossified") man's body, with the punchline being staff fear telling him about the damage. **"He Ponied"**: A brief joke where a college student, asked who wrote Caesar's Commentaries, answers "Bohn"—likely a pun on the publisher Bohn's Classical Library. **"A Boomerang"**: Social satire where a New Yorker criticizes Chicago's immorality, only to be told 35,000 New Yorkers live there—implying New Yorkers themselves are responsible for the city's moral decline.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
AN ARTIST’S TRIALS. Mammy Jane (whose sight is failing): GET DOWN DAR, CHILE, FO' YO" FALL EN BRE'K YO' NECK. WHAT YO! MAMMY OWINE SAY EF SHE SEE YO" CLIMIN’ "BOUT IN DEM FOOL CLOSE? . THE POET. LOOK into my heart and write, And that is why my verses, Instead of being sense, are light And empty as my purse is. cern! WFUL accident at the museum.” = The keoainl “What was it?” Hl | WHAT-IS “The wild dog from Borneo got loose last cae and ate up three-quarters of the ossified man ¢ while he slept.” “Does the ossified man know it?” “No; they're afraid to tell him.” HE PONIED. ROFESSOR: Who wrote Czasar’s Commen- taries? COLLEGE STUDENT: Why—er—Bohn. Can Kate Field’ 's Washington tell a lie? A BOOMERANG. sé H OW do you account for the rank immorality of Chicago?” asked the New Yorker. “We have 35,000 New Yorkers settled there,” answered Mr. Laketown. comicbooks.com