Life, 1890-10-16 · page 9 of 18
Life — October 16, 1890 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 207 This page contains four separate satirical jokes typical of early 20th-century Life magazine humor: 1. **"Misunderstood"** and **"His Woeful State"**: Social comedy sketches about romantic misunderstandings and class pretension. 2. **"Out of Fashion is Out of the World"**: Mocks Aunt Kate's outdated social rules about engagement etiquette, contrasting with modern dating behavior where "all the girls let him" kiss them. 3. **"Wanted to Know the Particulars"**: A dark joke where a Poet's Wife reading about a poet's death asks practically where he starved—satirizing both the stereotypical suffering poet and the wife's mercenary concerns. The sketches use exaggerated character types and verbal wit typical of Edwardian-era magazine humor, targeting social pretension, changing morality, and class anxieties of the period.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Dauber: MISUNDERSTOOD. Charlies Somenow | pon't THINK Miss MPLE AND ING 's. Do you NEVER LOOKS ME SQUARELY IN FACE? Fanny: THERE, SEE WHAT INJUSTICE VOU CAN DO A GIRL! KATIE MERELY THINKS YOU ADMIRE HER PROFILE, HIS WOFUL STATE. Paso Algy, my boy, why have you such an air of deep dejection and weariness ? BaBoony: Aw—, haw—; it's good fawm, ye know T WONDER FROM WHAT TRIBE THE SCULPTOR WHO DESIGNED OUR CENT FOUND HIS INDIAN TYPE, Twinkler (just home from Paris): WHY, FROM THE Sow TRIBE, OF COURSE. OUT OF FASHION IS OUT OF THE WORLD. UNT KATE (severely): Penelope, | saw Tom Barry kiss you last evening. You should not let him do so until you are engaged, at least. ENELOPE: Oh, he says that all the girls let him. WANTED TO KNOW THE PARTICULARS. OET’S WIFE (reading): Here's an account of the death of a poet. Poet (dejectedly): Where did he starve ? A RYE FACE.