Life, 1893-11-23 · page 13 of 26
Life — November 23, 1893 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct sections: **Upper portion:** Literary excerpts from what appears to be a serialized novel featuring characters Adrian, Diana, Beaucham, and Redworth debating "the social unit" and romantic relationships—themes typical of Victorian-era fiction. This is narrative content, not satire. **Lower portion:** A single-panel cartoon satirizing street vendors and customer complaints. Mrs. O'Hagan criticizes a vendor's bird (likely for sale as food) based on its appearance. The vendor sarcastically responds that if she wanted a "pretty bird," he would have filled a wagon with birds of paradise instead—implying she's being unreasonably picky about a practical purchase. The joke relies on the contrast between aesthetic expectations and practical value: the humor lies in the vendor's exasperated sarcasm about a customer prioritizing looks over quality or taste in foodstuffs. The page is primarily a book review section with one humorous illustration.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
achievement. Every one of his books teaches that the true social unit is not a strong man alone, or an acute woman alone—but a man and a woman who love each other with all their hearts, That is Nature's greatest lesson. And all the barriers which caste, or prejudice, or creed place between loving hearts are the foes of progress. Break them down, Beau- champ; break them down, Adrian! It isn't optimism, or pessimism, or individualism which rules the world. It is Love! ADRIAN (Sowing fo DIANA and REDWORTH I salute the Social Unit, and continue my way alone up the mountain of Purgatory. (Starts up the pathway.) Beaucnamp: And I follow and hope to find Beatrice at the summit. (Ex?t.) Diana (calling after): Her name is Jenny Denham, and I hope you'll find her. Repwortu: Come, dear, the shadow of the mountain has fallen on The Crossways, and we have a long walk across the valley before sunset. (They go down the ridge of Box Hill.) Droch. Mrs, O'Hagan: 1 DON'T LIKE THE Loc Vender (with suppressed anger): ARE WANTED A POOTY BIRD I'D A FILLED * LIFE: NEW BOOKS. KING'S HANDBOOK OF NEW YORK CiTY. illustrated, Edited and published by Moses P. King, Boston, To Gipsyland. By Elizabeth Robbins Pennell. Illustrated by Joseph Pennell. New York: The Century Company. Balcony Stories. By Grace King. New York : The Century Company. The Great Remembrance and Other Poems. By Richard Watson Gilder. New York: The Century Company. Walter Camp's Book of College Sports. By Walter Camp. New York: The Century Com- pany. Swret Bells Out of Tune, By Mrs. Burton Harrison." Illustrations by C, D. Gibson. New York: The Century Company. Two Bits of a Cherry and Other Tales, By Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. Miss Stuart's Legacy. Mrs. F, A. Steel. New York and London: Macmillan and Com- pany, Marking the Bounda' St. Paul: "The Price-M Stories of the Army. Scribner's Sons. Glimpses of the World's Fair, Chicago: Laird and Lee. The Cloud on the Heart. York: G. W. Dillingham. By E. E. Billings. Company. New York: Charles By A.S. Roe. New Pastorals of France, Renunciations, By Fred- erick Wedmore. Sons, My Little Love. York : Imported by Charles Scribner's By Marion Harland. New G. W. Dillingham, OKS AV THE YER A BUYIN’ IT FOR WAGON WID BIRDS O° PARADISE! ITS LOOKS OR ITS FLAVIOR? (ronically.) IF I'p A KNOWED You'D comicbooks.com