Life, 1892-08-04 · page 7 of 16
Life — August 4, 1892 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 63 This page contains three distinct pieces of satire: **"A Modern Borgia"** (large photograph): Shows an elaborately dressed woman in a garden setting. The caption references Mrs. De Smythe and Mrs. Van der Blos, suggesting satire of wealthy socialites and their fashions. The accompanying text humorously admires the gown while subtly critiquing high society's vanity. **"By Contraries"** (dialogue): A humorous exchange between an office boy asking his boss for an afternoon off to attend a baseball game, with the boss asking if the boy's aunt is dead—playing on the traditional excuse. **"Fin Du Siecle"** and **"The Toughest Boy in Town"** (sketch cartoons): Street scenes satirizing contemporary youth behavior and social attitudes of the era. The overall page mocks upper-class pretension, workplace dynamics, and urban life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
63 BY CONTRARIES, @ce BOY: Please, sir, can I go this after- noon? I want to go to a ball game. Boss: Good Heavens, boy! Is your aunt dead ? FIN DU SIECLE. ERDITO: Are you going to accept him, Pen ? PENELOPE: I really don’t know, dear, Brad- street reports very favorably on him, but the detec- tives have not completed their investigations yet. The New Clergyman: AW\ MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND, WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING WITH ? A MODERN BORGIA. (Mrs. De Smythe, rouveau riche to Mrs. Van der Bloo, ancien pauvre), HOW SWEETLY YOU ARE LOOKING THIS AFTERNOON, DEAR, I ALWAYS ADMIRED THAT GOWN; I HOPE IT WILL ever WEAR OUT. IFE cannot understand what has come over its esteemed contemporaries. The Su has failed this year to print its usual columns about bathing-suits, and the humorous journals have been wonderfully free from bathing-suit jokes. Perhaps % it’s because the silly season this year is enlivened eT T= 2. by the Homestead troubles and the Presidential campaign. And perhaps they have come to the - conclusion that they won't shoot any more at lovely woman be- cause she is doing her level best The Toughest Boy in Town: MUD! YER BLIND OLD under the circumstances, cuump! comicbooks.com