Life — February 16, 1893 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "A Business Loss" — Life Magazine Cartoon This is a dark humor cartoon about an undertaker's financial loss. The scene shows a grieving woman in elaborate mourning dress meeting with an undertaker (seated right) in his parlor. The joke's dialogue reveals the satire: The undertaker is overcome with grief—not for the deceased, but because "the deceased was the only doctor in the town." The humor exploits the tension between genuine mourning and economic self-interest. The undertaker would normally profit from deaths (his business depends on them), but this particular death is financially catastrophic because the town's only physician has died. The cartoon satirizes how professional interests can paradoxically conflict with one another, and mocks the undertaker's mercenary priorities surfacing even during a supposedly solemn moment.