Life, 1890-12-04 · page 1 of 14
Life — December 4, 1890 — page 1: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Reasoning From Premises" - Life Magazine, December 4, 1890 This single-panel cartoon satirizes flawed logical reasoning. A woman confronts a man about "that horrid Mr. Gargoyle," asking if he's seen his wife. The man denies it, claiming she's a blonde. The woman replies, "How do you know?" The man's absurd conclusion follows: he spent half an hour with Gargoyle yesterday and heard him "speak admiringly of every brunette who passed." The joke's logic is intentionally backwards—the man assumes that because Gargoyle praised brunettes, his wife must be blonde. The cartoon mocks people who draw ridiculous conclusions from incomplete or irrelevant premises, a common target of period satire about human reasoning and social pretension.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Im we Iry of RS of the e, and ble of ff J ee arts {28 VOLUME XVI. NEW YORK, DECEMBER 4, 1890. NUMBER 414. Entered at the New York Post Office as Second-Class Mail Matter Copyright 1890, by Mrrcwart & Miter, REASONING FROM PREMISES. She: THERE'S THAT HORRID Mk, GarGovLr, HAVE Vou EVER SEEN HIS WIFE? He: No; BUT SHE'S A BLONDE, “How po you “Twas with Ga PASSED.” LE HALP AN HOUR YESTERDAY, AND HE SPOKE ADMIRINGLY OF EVERY BRUNETTE WHO comicbooks.com