Life, 1890-07-24 · page 10 of 16
Life — July 24, 1890 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life's Primer - Page Analysis This is an educational humor page teaching children basic reading through puns and wordplay. The top section uses visual puns: "A Nut" (walnut), "A Nut-meg" (nutmeg with magnifying glass), "A Ham" (pig), and "A Ham-mer" (hammer). The main cartoon depicts children outside a church basement where a "dog fight" is occurring. A clerk confronts young men about the commotion, who justify it as innocent boys' activity. The satire mocks hypocrisy: these supposedly "Sunday school scholars" are actually involved in dog fighting—a brutal blood sport—while claiming religious propriety with phrases like "we will offer with a prayer." The page also contains simple educational reading exercises about watches, the moon, and running cows—typical primer content for young learners of that era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LIFE: LIFE’'S PRIMER. A. A JUDICIOUS use of this book will lighten the toll of the teacher, J ruecs and at the same time awaken in the pupil a desife for knowledge Re a that will be as far reaching as it is permanent. (ee oo A Nut-meg. See the watch. It is ly-ing on the bed, Do youghear the watch tick? Yes, but I do not hear the bed-tick. The moon is up. The man is up. The cat is up. The moon is full. The man is not full. The cat will soon be full. Sing, cat, sing! Can the t > Clerk: Wett., YOUNG MEN, WHAT DO YOU WANT? an the boy run? Oh, yes; the boy can run. The cow is after the boy. Run, cow, run. Spokesman: De OYS 18 GOIN’ TO HAVE A DOG FIGHT IN DE BASEMENT OF DE CHURCH, AN’ AS WE'RE ALL SUNDAY SCHOOL SCHOLARS, WE AIN'T GOIN’ TO. HAVE NO CUSSIN’ NOR SWE. is "AS DE SHOW WILL OPEN WID A PRAYER, WE TOUGHT YOU'D LIKE TER SEND A REPORTER DOWN TER TAKE NOTES, comicbooks.com