Life, 1893-03-23 · page 3 of 18
Life — March 23, 1893 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Explanation for Modern Readers This *Life* magazine page contains three brief satirical jokes typical of early 20th-century humor: 1. **"Poor Woman!"** jokes about Pilgrim mothers having harder lives than Pilgrim fathers due to managing both domestic duties and privations. 2. **"Bad Form"** presents a man (Hawkins) at comic opera observing that audiences no longer laugh—suggesting either declining entertainment quality or changing audience behavior. 3. **"Wool/Van Pelt"** is a pun-based joke about Queen Liliuokalani's Hawaiian name, with Van Pelt humorously suggesting her mother accidentally created it on a typewriter. These represent *Life*'s characteristic light satirical commentary on social customs, contemporary entertainment, and wordplay—rather than hard political commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
VOLUME XxI. Co >. Ge eee Hopeful Spinster: WAT, AS A MAN OF THE WORLD, DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST DESPERATE FORM OF GAMBLING ? The Bachelor: MARRIAGE. POOR WOMAN! THINK the Pilgrim mothers had a harder time than the Pilgrim fathers,” said Hicks. “ Why?” queried Dickson, “Why, they not only had to endure the same privations as the Pilgrim fathers, but they had to get along with the Pilgrim fathers as well.” BAD FORM. ‘© T UST see these people laugh,” said Hawkins, at the comic opera.“ They J * don’t seem to understand where they are.” “Why not?" queried Jingleberry. “No one ever laughs at comic opera any more,” said Hawkins. V OOL: How do you suppose Queen Liliuokalani got her strange name? VaN Pett: Her mother may have hit on it by accident, while learn- ing the type-writer. LGY: Waginald, what did you say, you know, when you were pwe- sented to the Pwince of Wales? REGINALD: Why, deah boy, the first thing I did was to apologize for the Amerwican Wevolution. TO BE WELL SHAKEN WHEN TAKEN, comicbooks.com