Life, 1894-01-04 · page 13 of 16
Life — January 4, 1894 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page contains two distinct satirical pieces: **"A Big Snap"** (top): Working-class characters in dialect speak discuss pooling money from horseshoe gambling to afford a cheap meal at a saloon—a commentary on urban poverty and the economics of survival among laborers who must gamble for basic sustenance. **"Farmer Hardfist" dialogue**: Satirizes rural attitudes toward farm labor. The farmer, oblivious to irony, lists exhausting chores (milking, feeding animals, wood-splitting, grinding grain) as "hardly work," genuinely confused why his son wants to escape to town. The joke targets farmers' denial about grueling agricultural labor and generational conflict over modernization. **"The First of January in New Amsterdam"** (bottom illustration): Depicts a crowded, chaotic New Year's celebration in what appears to be colonial New Amsterdam (early New York), likely satirizing holiday excess or cultural practices, though specific references are unclear without additional context. The page overall critiques labor conditions, social class, rural-urban migration, and entertainment spectacle in contemporary America.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Them Ins? bare. A BIG SNAP. “Look, ESeRBELLER! WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT TER GIT IN DAT SLOON AN’ EAT FRUM TWELVE TER SIX FER ONEY A QUATER ? WAIT TILL I GIT TEN HORSE SHOES AN’ I'LL TREAT." 13 Managers are not in the theatrical business for fun, They want to attract the people. Therefore they give the people what they want, and what the people want is gorgeous spectacle, fun of the farce-comedy order and drama of the depraved or of the sloppy-weather school. Is it strange that there is little prospect of anything wholesome or scholarly. for the next year? Metcalfe. Fakes HARDFIST: What under the sun is the reason that boys are such no-account critters nowa- days? Here is our son, Jasper, pretty nigh crazy to leave the old farm and try to git a job in town, Mrs. HaRDFist (meekly): Perhaps he thinks the work won't be quite so hard. , FARMER HARDFIS Work? Why, shucks, Polly; he don’t skurcely know what work is! He hain’t done a thing since supper but milk the cows, feed the horses, slop the hogs, split and carry in the wood and kindlin’s, shell a little corn, ketch the colt, and turn the grindstone for me about half an hour. He's had all the rest of the time to himself, except the few minutes it took him to mend the bridle I broke this mornin’, What in the name o’ Tunkett makes all boys so crazy to leave the old farm ? THE FIRST OF JANUARY IN NEW AMSTERDAM. comicbooks.com