Life, 1890-03-27 · page 5 of 20
Life — March 27, 1890 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 179 This satirical page contains three unrelated humor pieces typical of early 20th-century Life magazine: 1. **"Judging from Surface Indications"**: A dialogue mocking shallow judgment of character. A man claims a woman "looks like a martyr," but jokes she's only "skin deep" beautiful—implying if beauty is superficial, her virtue must be too. 2. **"Mr. Dwinoledown"**: A brief joke about someone neglecting to bring a microscope to see the President, suggesting the President is impossibly small or insignificant. 3. **"The Economical Faith"**: A domestic scene where a wife explains she keeps her husband "overwhelmed" with theater and opera invitations to prevent him from spending money elsewhere—satirizing financial manipulation in marriage. The humor targets vanity, political ineffectiveness, and marital economics.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-LIFE- JUDGING FROM SURFACE INDICATIONS. HE: I declare, it just dis- gusts me! That girl, Prudence Primrose, thinks she’s just a perfect saint. HE: Well, she /ooks like a martyr. SHE: How, pray? HE: Why, if beauty is only skin deep she must have been _ flayed alive. MR. DWINDLEDOWN. ID you see the President?” ; I neglected a very necessary accessory to that operation.” “What?” “1 left my microscope at home.” ALL-GOERS are of two classes—those who go to show what they - have on and those who go to show what they haven't got on. . A PRECOCIOUS CHILD. Irate Father: 1 CAN SEE THROUGH YOU, YoU f % % 7 LITTLE SNEAK! Bre! TY may be the soul of wit, but eminent travelers say that it has Suffering Boy: You OUGHT TO BE ABLE TO; nothing to do with the sole of-Chicago. I'M frans-PARENT. THE ECONOMICAL FAITH. ‘THERE IS ONE THING I DON'T UNDERSTAND ABOUT Harry.” “Wuat is THAT?" “WHY EVER since I TOLD HIM I INTENDED TO KEEP LENT HE HAS BEEN SIMPLY OVERWHELMING ME WITH INVITATIONS TO THE THEATRE AND OPERA.” comicbooks.com