Life, 1892-07-21 · page 1 of 16
Life — July 21, 1892 — page 1: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Just the Man" - Life Magazine, July 21, 1892 This short comic sketch depicts a social awkwardness joke with no apparent political content. Two men are having a conversation in what appears to be a tent or temporary shelter. The humor centers on a contradiction: one man claims Dolly Griggson is "terribly rude" because she fell asleep while he told her one of his best stories that afternoon. The other man responds that Griggson told him yesterday she suffered from insomnia. The joke's point is obvious—the woman's rudeness wasn't genuine rudeness but rather exhaustion from her sleep disorder. The title "Just the Man" likely refers to the first speaker being exactly the type of boring raconteur whose tedious stories would put anyone to sleep, making him the perfect target for such irony.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
VOLUME XxX. NEW YORK, JULY 21, 1892. NUMBER 499. Entered at the New York Post Office as Second-Class Mail Matter. Copyright, 1892, by Mrrcumns & Minter. JUST THE MAN. He: 1 THINK DOLLY GRIGGSON IS TERRIBLY RUDE. I WAS TELLING HER ONE OF MY BEST STORIES THIS AFTER- NOON AND SHE FELL ASLEEP, She: THAT's STRANGE! SHE TOLD ME YESTERDAY THAT SHE WAS TROUBLED WITH INSOMNIA. comicbooks.com