Life, 1892-12-01 · page 5 of 14
Life — December 1, 1892 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# November Thanksgiving Dinners - Life Magazine Satire This page satirizes prominent political figures of the 1890s facing difficult circumstances, using "Thanksgiving dinners" as metaphor. The text argues that while Life's friends doubt the "pudding" (policies) works, certain leaders must "eat crow" — accept humiliating defeat. **Identified figures:** - **McKinley**: facing starvation (economic hardship) - **Harrison, Blaine, Cleveland**: similarly struggling - **Bismarck, Gladstone, Morley, Germany**: dealing with political/military challenges - **Cheyennes and Arapahoes**: referenced alongside starvation imagery The satire mocks these leaders' inability to resolve crises—suggesting their "Thanksgiving" will be meager, forcing them to consume their failed policies. The cartoon appears critical of late-19th-century political failures and unpopular decisions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
GERMAKY. “THA ReeIOIRG® “SINN | 7 has been held for a long time that the proof of the pudding lies in the eating of it. Some of Ltre’s distinguished friends will doubtless agree with us in believing that the test of a viand ‘rests not only in the cating, but quite as much in the digesting of it. For instance, Major William McKinley may be able to feast on crow without making any wry faces over the taste— in fact, it may prove very palatable. Lire has never been obliged to eat crow, so it does not speak as one having authority, but it feels that no matter how good it may taste to Major McKinley, it will not prove as pleasing as the diet which the American people have provided for the Hon. Grover Cleveland BUT neither Major McKinley, Mr. Harrison, nor any of the rest of them need be cast down, They have fed on the fat of the land for a long time, and it is quite possible that the natural asininity of the Democratic party, leavened by the innate foolishness of the Populists, may put them back in power four years hence. HAT will be Mr. Cleveland's hardest task. He will not only have to be a Westinghouse air brake to his own party, but owing to a possibly necessary combi- nation with the Populists to secure a working majority in the Senate, he may be obliged to hoki back the fool ideas of that crowd also. CHEYENNES ano ARAPAHOES « CMADSTONE, avo > MORLEY. comicbooks.com