Life, 1891-01-29 · page 12 of 14
Life — January 29, 1891 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This page contains two separate satirical pieces from *Life* magazine: **"Not the Odor of Sanctity"**: A humor piece mocking hypocrisy in wealthy churches. A rector's family discusses an unpleasant smell in their fashionable congregation, only to discover the new church sexton (caretaker) is illegally raising chickens in the church furnace's cold air box for extra income. The title's ironic reference to "odor of sanctity" (a phrase for spiritual purity) undercuts the pretense of the wealthy congregation. **"Expressive" & "A Combination of Circumstances"**: Two brief jokes. The first jokes that an Irishman (Maguire, depicted with stereotypical dialect) looks like "a composite picture of all the inhabitants of New Jersey"—satirizing New Jersey's rough reputation. The accompanying sketches show various lower-class people with horses and carts, illustrating the crude social types being mocked. The overall theme targets class hypocrisy and ethnic stereotyping common to late-19th-century American humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
74 * LIFE: NOT THE ODOR OF SANCTITY. HE rector of one of our most wealthy and fashionable congregations was seated with his family at the Sun- day dinner-table, deeply engaged in a discussion as to the probable cause of a peculiar and unpleasant odor which had permeated the church during the last few services, After the inquiry had completely exhausted the subject of drains, defective plumbing, and insufficient ventilation, a youthful scion broke out with: you don’t suppose we could smell those chickens, do you?" “What chickens do you mean, Robby?" asked his father. “Why, you know; the chickens that the new. sexton is raising in the cold air box of the furnace.” Magaire (day laborer): 100 BE THINKIN’ I HOV A MASIE IN THE WINDY BEYANT; IV'RY BLISSED MOR-R-RNIN' DO SHE BE SITTIN THERE AN’ A WATCHIN’ FOR-R ME, DO YEZ MOIND NOW, EXPRESSIVE, ONES: Does he look like a countryman ? ADAMS: Does he? He looks like a composite picture of all the inhabitants of New Jersey. THE MANHATTAN CLUB—The Policeman's. A COMBINATION OF CIRCUMSTANCES. comicbooks.com