Life, 1891-12-31 · page 36 of 53
Life — December 31, 1891 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains four separate jokes satirizing American social pretensions and consumer culture: 1. **"Mrs. Callahan"**: Irish immigrant Mrs. Callahan is offended when a clerk asks if she wants "French kid" shoes, defensively insisting her son is American-born. The joke mocks both ethnic stereotyping and working-class anxiety about appearances. 2. **"On the Installment Plan"**: Mrs. Winterbloom boasts about an expensive piano gift, but it's revealed to cost only $8/month on credit. The satire targets conspicuous consumption and the illusion of wealth through installment buying—appearing rich while deeply indebted. 3. **"From Sad Experience"**: A poet applying for insurance is asked about hazardous work. He admits poetry is hazardous, likely meaning financially precarious or emotionally unstable. Insurance companies apparently considered poets high-risk. 4. **The main illustration** shows a romantic couple, with the man's poetic flattery undercut when the woman reveals her rose is artificial—mocking flowery sentimentality with practical reality. Overall, the page satirizes pretension, consumer debt, and romantic artifice in Gilded Age America.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Mrs Callahan: | WANT TO GET A PAR OF SHOES FOR THE LITTLE BYE. Clerk: FRENCH KID? Mrs. C. (indignantly): Ispave Not. He's ME OWN SON—nORN AN' BRED IN AMERIKY. ON THE INSTALLMENT PLAN. M RS. WINTERBLOOM : I fared so nicely this Christmas. Harold, open the piano your papa gave me, for Mrs. Van Twiller to look at. MRS.VAN TWILLER (enthusi- astically) What a beauty! If you will pardon my saying so, such an expensive present, too. HAROLD: Pa says it’s only $8.00 a month. FROM SAD EXPERIENCE. NSURANCE EXAMINER: Are you engaged in any hazardous business ? APPLICANT: Um, well— yes. The fact ts, 1 am a poet. feeseos) fines) a He: FORGIVE ME FOR KISSING YOU—THE PERFUME OF THAT ROSE IN YOUR HAIR INTOXI- CATED ME, AND I DID NOT KKNOW—— She: ASNT AT FUNNY! THAT'S AN ARTIFICIAL ROSE, YoU KNOW. A HIGH STOOP. comicbooks.com