Life, 1892-09-15 · page 3 of 18
Life — September 15, 1892 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This page from *Life* magazine contains a conversation between characters named Sims and Pensmith discussing a serialized story called "Social Boomerang" running in the publication. The dialogue reveals plot details: the hero, Reggie De Pinhead, has been trapped in a burning villa by a villain who set it on fire. Pensmith proposes a solution—revealing that the "real" Reggie De Pinhead died in infancy and was secretly replaced by a foster brother via a wicked nurse. Therefore, the man about to be cremated is actually a stranger, making his death acceptable. The two cartoons flanking the text ("A Middle-Weight" and "Out on a Toot") appear to be unrelated satirical character sketches typical of *Life's* humor style, mocking contemporary social types rather than commenting on specific political events.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
VOLUME Xx. She: HOW ANGRILY THOSE LITTLE WAVES DASH AGAINST THE BOAT! THEY SEEM TO BE CLAMORING FOR SOMETHING, He: THEY ARE, BUT THEY WON'T GET IT IF I CAN HOLD ON TO IT, “A MIDDLE-WEIGHT.” THE WAY OUT. IMS: Good morning, Pensmith. I have been enjoying your serial now running in the Social Boomerang very much, but for the life of me I cannot imagine how it is going to come out. In the last installment you left Reggie De Pinhead, the hero, in a terrible predica- ment, the villain having nailed him by the ears to the floor of the deserted villa, saturated the building with turpentine and set fire to it. In the concluding paragraph the roof falls in and the nearest help is a stone- deaf man digging in the bottom of a well half a mile away. Now, if you please, I wish you would tell me how you propose to save the hero. PENSMITH: Oh, easily enough. You see, the Reggie De Pinhead who was in the burning house was not the real Reggie at all, though he had believed so all his life, but his own foster brother for whom he was exchanged by a wicked nurse at the age of two days. The villain tells him this just before he jumps out of the window, and the poor fellow is so relieved at finding that it is not really himself who is about to be cremated, but a comparative stranger, that he does not mind it at all. “OUT ON A TOOT.” comicbooks.com