Life, 1891-04-02 · page 12 of 14
Life — April 2, 1891 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Page 214 Explained This page contains multiple satirical items from Life magazine (circa 1889-1891): **"Cholly" comic strip**: Mocks a wealthy, affected character ("Dontcherknow") who impulsively quits smoking for moral reasons, then immediately resumes—satirizing the weakness of upper-class affectation and willpower. **"Journalistic Burglary"**: Life calls out *Demorest's Magazine* and the *Evening Sun* for plagiarizing Tom Masson's poem without credit. Life sarcastically praises the Evening Sun's self-importance while mocking its hypocrisy and arrogance ("teaching its grandmother to suck eggs"—a period idiom meaning unnecessary instruction). **Other items**: Brief jokes about Ex-Speaker Reed visiting performer Carmencita, and a absurdist anecdote about a couple nearly divorcing after kissing each other in darkness—each mistaking the spouse for a sibling. The page exemplifies Life's approach: satirizing both wealthy pretension and journalistic dishonesty through humor and illustration.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
214 A VERY EXCITING ADVEN- TURE THAT HAPPENED TO CHOLLY. CHOLLY DECIDES THAT cIGc- ARETTES ARE INJURIOUS, AKD HE THROWS THEM OUT OF THE WINDOW THERE AND THEN, DONTCHERKNOW, BUT IN HALF AN HOUR HE FINDS THAT A FELLAM MUST SMOKE, BY JOVE. *LIFE: JOURNALISTIC BURGLARY. HE. was a maid of high degree, And quite severely proper, Each man she met, so proud was she, Would love, despair, then drop her. But there remained without demur, When all the rest forsook her, An amateur phographer, And finally he took her. “these verses, by Tom Masson, appeared in Lire, Oct. 3, 1889. These verses were stolen by the editor of Demorest's Maga- zine aud printed in the March, 1891, issue of that publication without reference to their previ- ous appearance in LIFE. These verses were printed in the Evening Sun of March 20 1891, and credited to Demorest's Magazine The Evening Sun is a rather interesting little penny paper which devotes a great deal of its limited space to lauding its own brightness and telling the editors of other publications just how they should conduct their business. We approve the ‘vening Sun's appreciation of the good things which appear in LIFE. We are sorry we can not say as much for its editorial sagacity or the bumptiousness which makes it embark so rashly on the difficult process of teaching its grandmother how to suck eggs. DIGNITY AND IMPUDENCE. Little Girl: Wwat's ER MATTER, SONNY? Is YER AFEERD TO cross? GIVE ME YOUR HAN’, I'LL TAKE YER OVER! WHY HE WENT. I see by the papers that Ex-Speaker Reed has been to see Carmencita. Yes; I suppose he feels lonesome now, without any kicking. A POSSIBLE CASE. It's the most curious case on record. Tell me about it. Well, you see, he kissed his wife in the dark, supposing it was her sister. She REENE: WHITE: ONES: Brown JONES: J kissed him, supposing it was his brother. They embraced each other for ten minutes before they discovered the real state of affairs. each other, Now they are both trying to get a divorce for kissing roy AT ANY RATE, DONTCHERKNOW, HE HAS THE MORAL SATISFACTION OF HAVING MADE AND HE GATHERS THEM UP AGAIN, A GOOD RESOLVE. comicbooks.com