Life, 1890-03-27 · page 9 of 20
Life — March 27, 1890 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Content Analysis This page from *Life* magazine contains satirical commentary on contemporary social issues. The top photograph shows a domestic scene with dialogue about declining a man's offer of assistance, suggesting commentary on gender roles and economic dependence. Below are three separate sections: "The Face of Boniface" mocks an innkeeper character unaware he's entertaining aristocrats; "Appropriate" satirizes Parrott and Wiggins discussing a newspaper to fight "modern corruptions and abuses," with Wiggins suggesting naming it "the *Earth*" for permanence—apparently ridiculing grandiose reformist schemes; and a final quote from *Hamlet* about man-eating tigers and hyphens, the meaning of which remains unclear without additional context. The cartoons target pretension, naïveté, and ineffectual reform efforts.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
: YOU MUST PUT AN END TO IT AT ONCE, SURELY YOU WOULD NOT HAVE ME DECLINE A MAN WHO SAVED MY LIFE! : HE MAY HAVE SAVED YOUR LIFE, MY DEAR, BUT FROM WHAT I KNOW OF HIM IT IS THE ONLY THING HE EVER DID SAVE, THE FACE OF BONIFACE. NN KEEPER (whose bill of fare is very meagre): And so you two gents are titled aristocrats from across the pond, are you? You didn’t register so, and here I've been entertaining angels unawares! THE Two GENTS: Yes—er—that is—the angels are unaware of it. APPROPRIATE. ARROTT: I'm thinking of starting a paper whose mission willbe to fight all our modern corruptions and abuses and frauds—but I don't know what name to give it. Wiccins: Call it the Earth. Parrott: Why? Wiccins: Because it will be one everlasting baw!! . T is fortunate that usury was not favored in patriarchal times. A business life of five or six hundred years would enable a pushing man to own the whole earth. Ww fear a man-eating tiger, when it is so easy to turn the tables by leaving out the hyphen? PICTORIAL SHAKESPEARE. “A THING, MY LorD.” Hamlet, comicbooks.com