Life, 1894-02-22 · page 12 of 16
Life — February 22, 1894 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Page 124: Social Satire This page contains three distinct satirical pieces: **"Questions of the Hour"** mocks the popular pseudoscience of physiognomy—judging character by facial features. The article ridicules the notion that facial traits (square jaws, forehead shape, eye placement) reliably indicate moral character, noting that novelists popularized this false belief. The satire points out that "honest eyes" don't guarantee honesty, and refined appearance often masks crude behavior. **"According to His Lights"** is a brief joke about a Black servant misunderstanding instructions—the master asked him to fetch ball attire but received a razor instead, playing on racist stereotypes about Black workers' intelligence. **The cartoon vignettes** at left show domestic comedy: a man claiming credit for a gift he didn't buy, and a woman confronting someone about recognizing their handwriting on a letter. The page reflects early 20th-century Life magazine's mix of social commentary and casual racial humor typical of that era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“AM, HA! I GET THE CREDIT OF IT AND DIDN'T COST ME A DOES YOUR FACE TELL US ANYTHING ? [2 you look atfthe moon over your left shoulder it is a sign of bad luck. Also, a square jaw is a“ sign” of firmness, and a high forehead a“ sign " of intellect. Some eyes indicate frankness ; others denote opposite quali and so on, The novelists are chiefly responsible for the perpetuation of this easy study of human nature, and it is not an innocent pastime, as there are countless cases in which sensible men have been woe- fully fooled by it. It assures us, for instance, that we can safely trust the man with “honest eyes” that are far apart. Now a very little experience in this willful world teaches the dullest observer that the man with the “honest eyes,” however far apart, is just as likely to circumvent him as the proprietor of “Don'r TELL ME YOU DID NOT SEND IT, SIR! I KNOW YOUR HAND- WRITING TOO WELL!” ACCORDING TO HIS LIGHTS. as He’ do you like that colored valet you imported from Ala- bama? “ He won't do.’ “ What's the matter?” : “T told him last night to get out what I needed for the ball, and he brought me my razor.” T HE smile and the sob have always been the same in all languages, but profanity is not so primitive. T isn’t the amount of talking a man does that makes him a bore; it's the amount he doesn’t say while he talks. any other eyes. We also discover for ourselves that the little woman with the weak face and reced- ing chin often has more firmness, perseverance and iron will than the impressive six foot athlete with a jaw like a strawberry box. The brow, eyes and mouth are believed by school girls to tell the owner's character with such pre- cision that any knowledge of his previous record is superfluous. Their confidence is still unshaken when it turns out that the owner of the lofty brow is almost an idiot, when he of the sly, scheming eyes proves himself an honest, self-sacriticing friend, or when the owner of the refined mouth is discovered to be the coarsest and most offensive cad of her comicbooks.com