Life, 1891-05-21 · page 1 of 15
Life — May 21, 1891 — page 1: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page (May 21, 1891) This page contains a single cartoon titled "An Oversight" depicting two men at a fence—one arriving with a bag, the other questioning him. The dialogue reveals a comedic misunderstanding: the first man bought a ham at the village but failed to purchase feathers for the tail, apparently expecting to pluck tail-feathers from the ham itself. The humor is straightforward wordplay: "ham" refers both to the meat and to a poor/exaggerated performer. The joke satirizes either rural simplicity or someone's theatrical pretensions—the "oversight" being the absurd notion that a ham would have tail-feathers to pluck. The ornate left border features Life's characteristic decorative design with small illustrated vignettes, typical of the magazine's 1890s aesthetic.
📄 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, MAY 21, 189r. NUMBER 438. Entered at the New York Post Office’as Second-Class Mail Matter. Copyright, 1892, Mircwru. & Mituae, prsRicanys *) ge jvm. AN OVERSIGHT. “WHAT HAVE YOU GOT IN THE BAG, Mose?” “ER—ER—HAM, SAH—DAT I HOUGHT DOWN AT DE VILLAGE, SalI.” “A MAM, EH 2—WHY DIDN'T YOU GET 'EM TO PLUCK THE TAIL-FEATHERS 2?” comicbooks.com