Life, 1893-12-14 · page 11 of 16
Life — December 14, 1893 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 383 This page features architectural content rather than political satire. The main article, "A Fragment of Our Building," celebrates the LIFE magazine headquarters' design by architects Carrère & Hastings. The text praises the building's beauty and proportions, comparing it favorably to Boston's architecture and suggesting it represents progress in New York design. The page includes architectural drawings of the building's facade and a decorative bracket detail. A separate cartoon shows a figure "blowing in his tin" (a horn), likely generic humor unrelated to the architecture article. At bottom, a brief dialogue joke plays on insurance terminology—a non-sequitur about changing occupations and becoming a "Brazilian insurgent," typical of period magazine filler humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A FRAGMENT OF OUR BUILDING. OW that the cat is out of the bag and Lite’s readers are aware that he is building to himself a temple of surpassing beauty, he will take their interest for granted and keep them posted on the progress of the work. The drawing on this gives a suggestion of some details of the first three stories, which are now built; but the carving is still in the rough. The front is practically of Indiana stone with just enough brick of a delicate yellowish pink to give the warmth of color that should harmonize with the cheerfulness within. Later on we shall give a view of the entire front, and in the meantime we would say with all the modesty that can accompany such an assertion, that in purity of design, in elegance, and in the dignity of its proportions, it will be a step forward in New York architecture. Even Boston, who pos: more good architecture than all tae other cities of the republic put together, will tremble in her azure stockings and regret that this perfect flower of the builders art was not to ripen in the modern Athens. Messrs, Carrére & Hastings, the architects, knowing that LIFE, although rotund and youthful, has a discriminating taste, and that no art is too high for him and no beauty too subtle, have produced a design that, both in plan and exterior, will be a bot. promise to the seeker after Truth. “BLOWING IN HIS TIN," ONE OF THE BRACKETS ON DOORWAY or LiFe BUILDING, “can I change my occupation under the terms of this insurance policy?" “What do you wish to be?” “ A football player.” “No.” “Can I become a Brazilian in- surgent?” “Yes.” , comicbooks.com