Life, 1892-08-25 · page 9 of 14
Life — August 25, 1892 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Working Coaches" Satire This page satirizes amateur coachmen—wealthy dilettantes who operated horse-drawn coaches as a hobby or social pursuit. The top illustration depicts a chaotic scene where inexperienced "amateurs" operating a coach wildly mishandle their vehicle, with passengers tumbling about dangerously. The accompanying text mockingly advises amateurs on "impressing confidence": if your team runs away and crashes badly onto railroad tracks, you should laugh it off so passengers feel comfortable—the satire being that catastrophic incompetence is being masked by false cheerfulness. The bottom illustration shows a similar disaster unfolding. The satire targets wealthy hobbyists playing at being professional coachmen while endangering actual passengers through their reckless inexperience. It's commentary on class privilege and dangerous amateurism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
FE: BO ® IF IN TURNING RATHER gy SHARPLY YOU KNOCK OVER AN i OLD APPLE- WOMAN. EON CONFIDENTLY STATE THAT. Poe’ OLD APPLE-WOMEN PURIDSELY SQUAT AROUND CORNERS 9B MAVE THE KONOR OF BEING KNOCKED Down eee THE MAIN PoINT WITH THE AMATEUR_ COACHMAN 18 TO IMPRESS CONFIDENCE ; IF YouR TEAM RUNS AWAY AND CROSSES,MADLY, A RR.TRACK ASA Sa TRAIN 1S APPROACHING, YOU MUST LAUGH AS IF You THOUGHT IT A Goop JOKE. } )N YOu’ "yy OD ©) Swovurp yo YOUR PASSENGERS BE DUMPED, THE Brer REGULATED COACHES. UR HIND WHEEL DROP IN A DitcH AND SOME oF GAILY SAY THAT ACCIDENTS Writ HAPPEN ON PP’ “WORKING COACHES.” comicbooks.com