Life, 1891-04-16 · page 9 of 14
Life — April 16, 1891 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 241 This page contains three distinct satirical pieces: 1. **"Not Prejudiced"** critiques indifference to poetry by someone who won't read verses. 2. **"A Question of Value"** mocks an American woman's legal expenses (£58) in London court, comparing the cost to childbirth. It also satirizes writer Julien Gordon's apparent disdain for American cleanliness versus English standards. 3. **"One of the Clear Cases"** (bottom cartoon) depicts two widows discussing war pensions. The joke hinges on one widow's bitter revelation that her late husband wasn't actually killed in war—she's receiving a pension meant as a substitute for his actual wartime service, implying government compensation for emotional rather than actual loss. The cartoons employ dark humor typical of early 20th-century Life magazine's social commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
self): “WELL, THE INGRATITOOD OF SOME FOLKS I$ TERRIBLE TO THINK oF, HERE I'VE BEEN A WORKIN' FOR THREE HOURS WITHOUT WAKIN' A SOUL, AN' THERE AIN'T A DROP OF LICKER IN THE MOUSE. AN' THEN FOLKS WONDER AT CRIME!" NOT PREJUDICED. DON'T object to poets, no— I pray may Heaven speed them. What verse they write I care not so As I don’t have to read them, A QUESTION OF VALUE. T is computed that it costs an American lady fifty-eight pounds, five shillings, to be’presented at Court, in London, The Philadelphia 7zmes thinks the investment hardly pays. Perhaps not; but it costs about as much as that to be born. Does that pay ? In both cases you look to future experience to get back the worth of your money. T seems that Julien Gordon does not think the American man is adequately washed. Perhaps not; but let Julien take care that he does not recall the retort of an American woman to an English authoress, and reply that he is plenty clean enough “to read your nasty books, ma’am.” ss D° you think Mr. De Riche is in earnest, May?” “T guess he is. He has just taken a fourth mort- gage on our house to oblige papa.” HE candidates for the Yale crew spent a good part of their Eas- ter vacation on the Schuylkill river with Captain Robert Cook, of Phila- delphia, When Mahomet's business engagements are such that he cannot get to the mountain there is nothing for the mountain to do but to stir its stumps Mahometwards. 6¢7-)H, for the honesty of the old days. Why, think what would have happened if Jay Gould had gob- bled a whole highway in the stern old Roman times.” “I don't know. Look how Horatius kept the bridge” First V 3 HUSBAND WASN'T INT! Second Widow ¢ “*& SHOCKING BAD HAT.” Buit Res, ONE OF THE CLEAR CASES. : How 18 IT YOU DRAW A PENSION FROM THE GOVERNMENT? Your WAR, WAS HE? No, BUT MY FATHER'S SUBSTITUTE CONTRACTED NOSTALGIA AT comicbooks.com