Life, 1893-02-16 · page 11 of 16
Life — February 16, 1893 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Explanation for Modern Readers This page satirizes the disappearance of stagecoach 3033 from the Fifth Avenue Stage Line in New York City. The text indicates the coach vanished near the Buckingham Hotel, with passengers and cargo lost. The company paid $12 for insurance on a $6 policy, suggesting financial desperation. The cartoon dialogue mocks the absurdity: a tailor questions a customer about how "a perfect stranger stepped up to me on Fifth Avenue, and asked me how all the folks were in Philadelphia"—implying the missing coach created such a bizarre, nonsensical situation that even random interactions became surreal. The illustrations depict bewildered city dwellers discussing the incident. The satire targets the stage company's incompetence and the public's shocked reaction to this mysterious urban incident.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LIFE: NOTHING MORE FROM 3083. PROBABLY OUT OF HER COURSE, RE-INSURING ALREADY Bi DIST, AT THE COMPANY'S OFFICES.—THE PR’ DENT’S BRUTAL JEST, CENES Nothing has been heard from 3033 of the Fifth Avenue Stage Line since she was sighted just off the Buckingham Hotel in W. Lat. 276° 42’, S. Long. 8° 73’. She was then leaking badly and had a heavy list to port. It is understood that the company has paid twelve dollars for a six dollar policy of insurance to cover a possible loss of horses, harness and stage. The offices of the company are daily crowded with sad- - Pedestrian: SAY, BILLY, DID YER GIT THAT HORSE FROM THE FirtH AVENUE Stace Company? faced fathers, mothers, and cousins waiting for the earliest word of news concerning their loved ones on the ill-fated craft. At present all is conjecture. 3033 may have drifted from her course, and being disabled, may not find her way back again, unless some officer of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals should wake up and run across her. It having been suggested that she might have struck an iceberg and gone to the bottom with all hands on board, a LIFE reporter was sent to interview Street Commissioner Brennan. That gentleman was found in a well-known resort kept by a Tammany friend, and admitted that since the recent cold snap Fifth Avenue had been full of icebergs. It was quite possible, he allowed, that 3033 had run against one or more. He stated, however, that as he had to carry so many Tammany men who were averse to work on his pay~ rolls, he could not be expected to make navigation on Fifth Avenue safe for such rotten craft as those run by the Fifth Avenue line. Another reporter was sent to interview the principal stock- holder. The good shepherd of the Fifth Avenue Line was found trying to devise some new method of making monu- mental idiots conspicuous in the public eye. He only con- firmed the fact that nothing had been heard from 3033. When asked whether he thought that there was any danger | of the passengers running short of provisions he said that he had been informed that one of the passengers was a fat gentleman and that if worst came to worst he would last the other passengers for some days. There is nothing to do but wait and hope. LIFE will, as usual, keep its readers supplied with the latest information. The latlor: Was \T SUCH A VERY BAD FIT? The Customer: WELL, YOU CAN JUDGE FOR YOURSELF, WHEN a I TELL YOU THAT A PERFECT STRANGER STEPPED UP TO ME ON LL the world’s a stage, but to any one who has ever FIFTH AVENUE, AND ASKED ME HOW ALL THE FOLKS WERE IS witnessed an amateur theatrical performance the fact PHILADELPHIA, is apparent that all the men and women are not actors. comicbooks.com