Life, 1891-12-31 · page 37 of 53
Life — December 31, 1891 — page 37: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains four separate jokes reflecting early 20th-century American humor and prejudices: 1. **Top cartoon**: A woman claims her father is a "planter" in Chicago, but he's actually an undertaker—a joke about social climbing and deceptive status claims. 2. **"The Inevitable"**: A bachelor discovers a hole in his Christmas stocking—simple wordplay humor. 3. **"Labor Saving Scheme"**: Marital humor where a wife exploits her husband's indifference about dinner to avoid cooking effort. 4. **"Southern Diet"**: Mocks Southern hospitality and food quality through a visitor's complaint that beefsteak is so tough he can only "bend" it rather than cut it. 5. **Irish Negro reference**: A brief, dehumanizing racial stereotype combining ethnic caricatures. 6. **"Moses in the Bull Rushes"**: An illustration with unclear context in this OCR version. The page exemplifies period satire mixing domestic humor with crude racial stereotyping now recognized as offensive.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
She; HER FATHEK 1S AN UNDERTAKER IN CHICAGO, ISN'T HE? He; Yes, SHE TOLD ME SHE WAS THE DAUGHTER OF A PLANTER. THE INEVITABLE. BACHELOR, on Christmas eve, Resolved, in some strange fit, To hang his stocking up. He did, And found a hole in it. A LABOR SAVING SCHEME. USBAND: Why do you always ask me what I want for dinner, just as I am leaving the breakfast table ? WIFE: Because you always say “ Nothing much,” and it saves a lot of cooking. SOUTHERN DIET. T was at a Richmond hotel, and he modestly called for a beefsteak. When it came he tinkered at it for ten minutes and then called the waiter. “ What's this?” “ Beefsteak, sah.” “Thank you. Do guests usually try to cut them?" “Reckon dey do, sah, unless dey got right smart moufs.” “Yes? Well, I haven't! I'm from New York. You take that steak back to the cook, waiter, and tell him I haven't hurt it any. I've only bent it a little—just a little.” HERE is an Irish Negro in this city. He of course has a woolly head and a flannel mouth MOSES IN THE BULL RUSHES, comicbooks.com