Life, 1892-05-12 · page 5 of 18
Life — May 12, 1892 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 297 This page contains three distinct satirical elements: 1. **"In Too Much of a Hurry"** (top): A brief poem mocking someone rushing to theater, only to waste time in the lobby. 2. **"Between Novels"**: A dialogue between a Good Novel and Bad Novel personified as characters. The Bad Novel complains about mistreatment—being hidden on shelves and threatened with burning—while the Good Novel boasts of library respect. This satirizes contemporary literary snobbery and class distinctions in reading material. 3. **"The Lightning Change Artist and the Escaped Lion"**: Whimsical illustrations depicting circus/performance chaos with magical transformations and wild animals, typical of Life's humorous visual storytelling. The page reflects early-20th-century concerns about literature, entertainment, and social pretension.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LLP Imported Paris Omnibus Horse: MON Dieu! But You HAVE THE SAD AIR! Fifth Avenue Stage Puller: YES, OLD BOY. COME INTO OUR COMPANY AND YOU'LL LOOK LIKE THIS AT THE END OF A MONTH. THE LIGHTNING CHANGE ARTIST AND THE ESCAPED LION. IN TOO MUCH OF A HURRY. E ran ten blocks to be in time To take her to the play, And there, within the parlor dim, He whiled an hour away. BETWEEN NOVELS. The Good Novel, The Bad Novel. HE GOOD NOVEL: Well, how in the world did we get together ? THE BaD NOVEL: Don’t worry. She put me down here when her mother called her. But she will throw me back of the hat box on the top shelf before any one gets a chance to see me. It's dreadfully dark up there. Tue Goop NOVEL: I'd rather be there than here on the library table, where every one that calls picks me up, throws me down and says “ Pshaw!" THE BaD NovEL:. But look at the condition I'm in—all torn and soiled. Why, every one in the house is reading me, and every one is trying to conceal the fact by putting me back in the same place. One of these days I shall be discov- ered by two of them atthe same time, and then I shall be burned in the furnace. Ugh! THE Good NOVEL: ‘That's better than being given to the Sunday Scho-: ubrary when you get old and gray. THE Bap NOVEL: But they're always talking about you. THE Goop NOVEL: Well, they're always thinking about you. ? THE BaD NOVEL (sighing): Well. 1 suppose their very detestation of me is ina way a compliment. The very first person that read me, cut me. That shows what they think of me. THE GooD NOVEL: them. That shows what they think of me. And I've never been cut by any of Tom Hall, Friend, back of him: JUMP AT HIM SUDDENT, JIMMY, AN’ KNOCK HIM DOWN AN’ THEN I'LL SICK MY DOG ON HIM! comicbooks.com