Life, 1894-12-27 · page 12 of 53
Life — December 27, 1894 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "A Recent Lamentable Occurrence" This page satirizes the wealthy Astor family (referenced as "Jack Astorbilt"—a pun on "Astor"). It's a mock-serious takeoff on the nursery rhyme "The House That Jack Built," depicting a comedic chain-of-command scenario involving a vagrant sleeping in a rich man's bed. The six illustrations show: the mansion, the bed, the ragged vagrant, the footman who discovered him, the police officer summoned, and the manager orchestrating a public spectacle from the incident. The satire mocks both the pretensions of wealthy industrialists and the sensationalism of urban news media—suggesting the manager will exploit this minor incident for publicity. The bottom dialogue fragment about a "fashionable wedding" appears to be unrelated content, possibly advertising or a separate piece. The humor targets Gilded Age excess and class divisions in early 1900s America.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LIFE: A RECENT LAMENTABLE OCCURRENCE. This is the bed that lay in the house that Jack Astorbilt, This is the bum all tattered and torn that k Astorbilt. slept in the bed that lay in the house: that Jack Astorbilt. This is the copper summoned at dawn ‘This is the footman all shaven and shorn, who discovered the bum all tattered and torn as he slept in the bed that lay in the house that Jack Astorbilt, to follow the footman all shaven “and shorn, and fire the bum all tattered and torn that slept in the bed that lay in the house that Jack Astorbilt. E NTHUSIASTIC COLORED Go it, gents—keep de.rice POLICEMAN: An’ fwhot are yer eg not related ? E. C. S.: No, boss, but rice is good for chickins, an’ I am de sweeper hyah! TOR (at fashionable wedding) : y—chuck it out lively! n’ av thim an fur—sure, you are This is the manager taking a horn who- will hire the copper some pleasant morn to bring him the footman all shaven and shorn, and likewise the bum all tattered and torn—he expects to strike the public dumb with the copper the footman and eke the bum, the bum that slept till they thought him dead, in the silken, pillow-shammed, carved oak bed that lay in the house: that Jack Astorbilt. comicbooks.com