Life, 1891-04-23 · page 1 of 14
Life — April 23, 1891 — page 1: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Too Inviting" - Life Magazine, April 23, 1891 This satirical cartoon mocks a wealthy New Jersey capitalist's aesthetic taste. The "New Jersey Capitalist" wants bronze lions as house decorations—a status symbol of the era. The "Salesman" questions their appeal, while the "N.J.C." (New Jersey Capitalist) dismissively responds that they're "too life-like," worrying that mosquitoes might eat them overnight. The joke targets two things: the pretentious materialism of the nouveau-riche businessman, and the genuine plague of disease-carrying mosquitoes in New Jersey at that time. By suggesting the lions are "too lifelike" to survive local mosquitoes, the cartoon ridicules both the man's artistic sensibility and implicitly comments on the region's notorious mosquito problem.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
VOLUME XVII. NEW YORK, APRIL 23, 1891. NUMBER 434. Entered at the New York Post Office as Second-Class Mail Matter. Copyright s8or, by Marcum, & Mire, TOO INVITING. New Jersey Capitalist: 1 WANE A COUPLE OF DRONZE LIONS TO PUT IN FRONT OF MY HOUSF. Salesman: WaT DO YOU THINK OF THESE YOU ARE LOOKING AT? NJ. Cs Too cire-Like, WHY, NEXT SUMMER THESE FELLOWS WOULD BE ESTEN UP IN A NIGHT BY THE MOSQUITOES, comicbooks.com