Life, 1890-10-30 · page 12 of 14
Life — October 30, 1890 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Page Analysis This page contains several satirical jokes and one cartoon typical of late 19th-century American humor: **Top cartoon**: Shows three men (labeled Arthur Q. Bunco and Silas Wiley), likely representing working-class types, in casual conversation—simple street humor. **Key jokes include:** - **"So Far and Yet So Near"**: Satirizes the telephone as a romantic device; a man's poetic reverie about a distant woman is interrupted by her mundane request (a phone number). - **"The Only Great and Original American Joke"**: Mocks Ward McAllister, a prominent New York society figure, for publishing under his own name rather than a pseudonym—suggesting his wit isn't sharp enough to warrant anonymity. - **"Before the Divorce"**: Jokes that a new bride's cooking is so bad her husband shouldn't survive it. - **"Not to Be Expected"**: A lawyer sarcastically questions a milkman witness who claims not to recognize milk—implying milk quality is so poor/adulterated it's unrecognizable. - **Bottom cartoon**: Complains about a noisy variety troupe, playing on New York's chaotic immigrant populations and entertainment scene. The humor relies on contemporary references to New York society, food quality concerns, and vaudeville culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SO ‘FAR AND YET SO NEAR, ANP the tumult and the din of trade, A girlish voice sounds sweetly on my ear, Seeming to bring the absent, charming maid, Almost beside me—dangerously near; In hushed suspense I strive to catch that tone, Straining each nerve until the brain grows dizzy. At last it rustles through the telephone :— “Tve told you ftvice ; four-fifty-four is bu Harry Komaine, THE ONLY GREAT AND ORIGINAL AMERICAN JOKE. ~HE: I see Mr. Ward McAllister thought it best to write his book under his own name and not a xom de plume, He: Yes. He's not the man to leave the point of a joke out. BEFORE THE DIVORCE. ss ELL,” said Brown to his newly married friend, ‘so your wife does the cooking. 1 wonder you are alive to tell the tale!" Arthur Q. Bunco: WWeRe DO YOU LIVE WHEN YOU ARE HOME, SILAS? fal replied the other, “* but 1am alive—alive Silas Wiley: Ter Wem, oF course, Were’ ver 'srose? and kicking. HE financial success of the dancing ladies who are just now holding public attention gamit ye ROOMY ig is likely to bring to our shores large importa- f tions of other young women whose eloquence is any located principally in their limbs of locomotion ; su guy and saltation, Both Carmencita and Otero are ‘ an making money so fast that we may expect ere long to behold our theatres given over entirely to Almehs, Geisha gir! utch dancers, and the women of every other race that can show us something novel in the Terpsichorean art. And if William Shakespeare were living now he would probably be enjoying the luxuries of agarret in Avenue A. ” A rad ne wes »Y ” ” é NOT TO BE EXPECTED. AWYER: You say that the poison which the prisoner placed before his victim was concealed in a white liquid, and yet you are not prepared to swear that it was milk. Don’t you know milk when you see it ? WITNESS: No, sir. LAWYER (sarcastically): Who are you, F New Arrival; Cax'T YOU GIVE MEA QUIETER ROOM? I ast FROM BosTox Tam a milkman. _ NOISE OFFENDS MY CULTURED EAR. UNDER TAMMANY RULE. Old Nicholas: VERY SORRY, BUT | CAN'T DO ANY BETTER FOR YOu, Last How much are you worth? NIGHT A VARIETY TROUPE ARRIVED AND THE RESULT HAS BEEN UNFORTUNATE T hain’t set any price yet. FOR US ALL! comicbooks.com