Life, 1892-02-04 · page 3 of 16
Life — February 4, 1892 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page (Volume XIX, Number 475) This page contains three satirical pieces: 1. **Top left cartoon**: A dialogue about marriage priorities—a man asks a woman whether she values beauty or wealth most, and she replies she'd marry for wealth. The satire critiques women's mercenary attitudes toward marriage. 2. **"A Tragedy in Still Life"**: A darkly comic sketch about a dead duck, featuring characters named "Biff Bang" and "Skit Skat" quarreling over responsibility for its death. The humor derives from treating the duck's death with mock-serious, dramatic language. 3. **"Unaccountable"**: Street scene satirizing wealthy people's hypocrisy—they demand poor children wear proper clothes while preferring to go naked themselves. 4. **"In Chicago"**: Brief dialogue about a child's parentage, playing on social assumptions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
NUMBER 475. A TRAGEDY IN STILL LIFE. p, = ~KIT SKAT: Dead! Dead for a ducat— Vaal . dead! See what a rent the envious Biff Bang made. Behold yon sawdust streaming He: WHAT DO YOU REGARD AS MOST ESSENTIAL—BEAUTY oR weattH ? from his side. Ah! I could weepthe paint from She: WeLL—ER—I'D MARRY WEALTH, IF I WERE YOU, out mine eyes. | am a widder. : BirF BANG: The deed is done. Thank * Heaven, also, it is signed and recorded. Me trusty darning-needle hath done its work. ing from behind the fan.) Skitty Skatty— Skat: You? BiFF BANG: Oui! Yes! Yah ! Ss Skat: (Aséde.) How touching! (70 B. B.) Is this your work ? Birk BANG: Si, Signorita! Skit Skat: Why was it done? BirF BANG: To save you the nece: a divorce, my darlingski. Take up the darning- in or take up me. Come to me arrums. Zounds! My machinery hath run down, I cannot move. Perdition take the Frenchman that made me. Skir SKAT: So has mine. I cannot move an inch, BiFF BANG: Farewell— tii SKIT SKAT: Forever. .. IM upping Tom Halt. TUE ! IN CHICAGO. : Whose little girl are you ? UNACCOUNTABLE. “LORENCE : I’m papa’s little girl, : And why aren't you mamma's “BILLY, KIN YER TELL ME WHY IT IS WHEN THE RICH FOLKS KIN AFFORD y y 2 . eas TO BUY ALL THE CLOTHIN' THEY WANT FOR THEIRSELVES THAT THEY prereR — little girl? TO GO NAKED?” FLORENCE: ‘Cause the decree gave me to papa. comicbooks.com