Life, 1890-03-27 · page 12 of 20
Life — March 27, 1890 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Satire Page Analysis This page contains multiple short satirical pieces targeting late-19th-century figures and social attitudes: **"Speculative Heredity"** mocks class anxieties about inherited traits through a mother opposing her daughter's engagement to George Rockpate, fearing his "hard-headedness" will pass to grandchildren—only to have the daughter counter that her own family has "softening of the brain," suggesting hereditary concerns were absurd. **"Teacher" joke** satirizes newspaper editors' influence, implying the world is "nearest the sun" (most enlightened) when editors are absent. **"We Do Not Believe"** ridicules prominent figures like Gladstone, financier Russell Sage, and Jay Gould through exaggerated claims about their character flaws and hypocrisy. **"Getting Ready for the Fair"** references Chicago's World's Fair preparation, with a clergyman's pun on "repair" suggesting spiritual healing. The illustrations accompany light social humor about a nearsighted girl rescuing a blind man from traffic, and boarding school girls interrupted during snacking. The tone is genteel satire typical of Life's early period.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
*LIFE: SPECULATIVE HEREDITY. ATERFAMILIAS : Imogen, I don’t think I could ever approve of your marrying George Rockpate. I should hate to think that any of my grandchildren would be like him, He was such a hard-headed boy, and it runs in the family. IMOGEN: Yes, mamma, I know all the Rockpates are awfully hard-headed, but you must remember that there is softening of the brain in our family. “TEACHER: When is the world nearest to the sun? Bonsy (who reads the papers): When the editors are away. CeCe TENDER-HEARTED EMILY, WHO IS A TRIFLE NEARSIGHTED, SEES A BLIND MAN ON THE POINT OF BEING RUN OVER BY AN APPROACH- ING CAR. TO SNATCH HIM FROM THE JAWS OF DEATH IS BUT THE WORK OF AN INSTANT. WE DO NOT BELIEVE: Ts Mr. Gladstone has gone over to the Roman Cath- olic Church, because Mr. Gladstone is a believer in home rule and not church rule ; That John Wanamaker will sell the old stock of green postage stamps at thirty off for ten days; That General Boulanger will shortly have one of his mani- festoes amputated and sent to Carnot ; That Russell Sage has any idea of dropping a nickel in the slot to see the World's Fair come to New York; That Jay Gould is round-shouldered from carrying so many railroads ; That Elliott F. Shepard is four-legged as well as fore- handed; That a member of the Four Hundred is dying from brain fever; That Queen Victoria will spend her whole winter at Florence if she can spend anybody else’s in Scotland ; That Edgar Saltus is as strong a novelist as he is rank; But we do believe that Chicago would better aban- don the Fair, or crawl into the hole it has digged for itself and‘drag the Fair in after it. GETTING READY FOR THE FAIR. CHICAGO clergyman is having a sign painted, to hang over his door, and it reads: “ Re-pair- ing done here: Broken hearts a sv cialty.” CENE AT A“ HOME” BOARDING-SCHOOL: Girls in an up-stairs room, eating ginger snaps, apples, etc; bell below rings ; one girl starts up, ex- claiming : Come, girls, let's stop eatzng and go down to supper ! HE PROVES TO BE THE SWITCHMAN, BUT A PIECE OF SIL- VER SOOTHES HIS INJURED FEELINGS, comicbooks.com