Life, 1895-04-11 · page 13 of 26
Life — April 11, 1895 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The page contains two separate humorous pieces: **Top Cartoon:** An oculist (eye doctor) tests a patient's vision using an eye chart. The joke is that the patient can only see "the one at the bottom"—implying he's so nearsighted that despite the chart displaying multiple lines, he can only discern the largest letter. This is a straightforward visual gag about poor eyesight. **Text Story by Stephen Leacock:** A man accidentally writes a check for $56 instead of $6 to a millionaire. Too embarrassed to correct it, he withdraws the full amount. When the clerk asks "How will you have it?" (meaning what denominations), the panicked narrator absurdly responds "in fifties," receiving one $50 bill. When asked about "the six," he says "in sixes"—nonsensical answers that humiliate him further. The bank staff laughs at his exit. Leacock satirizes social anxiety and the paralysis of embarrassment that prevents rational action. **Lower Item:** A brief note about President Eliot seeking $200,000 for a college library reading room—a fundraising appeal.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Oculist : Now, TELL ME HOW MANY OF THESE YOU CAN ste ? “1 CAN SEE NODDINGS BUT THE ONE AT THE BOTTOM.” millionaire. 1 wrote something on the cheque and thrust it in at the clerk. He looked at it. “What! are you drawing it all out again?" he asked in surprise. Then I realized that I had written fifty-six instead of six. I was too far gone to reason now. I had a feeling that it was impossible to explain the thing. All the clerks had stopped writing to look at me. Reckless with misery, I made a plunge. “ Yes, the whole thing.” “ You withdraw your money from the bank ?” “ Every cent of it.” “ Are you not going to deposit any more ?” said the clerk, astonished. An idiot hope struck me that they might think something had insulted me while | was writing the cheque and that I had changed my mind. I made a wretched attempt to look like a man with a fearfully quick temper. The clerk prepared to pay the money. * How will you have it?" he said. “ What?" “ How will you have it?” “Oh.” IT caught his meaning and answered without even trying to think, “in fifties.” He gave me a fifty dollar bill. “ And the six?” he asked dryly. “In sixes,” I said. He gave it me and I rushed out. As the big doors swung behind me I caught the echo of a roar of laughter that went up to the ceiling of the bank. Since then I bank no more. I keep my money in cash in my trousers pocket, and my savings in silver dollars in a sock. Stephen Leacock, CCELUM NON ANIMUM. (Scrap of conversation overheard within sight of the Pyramids.) RESIDENT ELIOT to Mr. Myriad Plunks, of Cincinnati: ‘ Yet the usefulness of the whole institu- tion is crippled and checked for the present by our lack of about $200,000 for the erection of a new reading room for the college library.” ITH what to begin one’s dinner is usually a superficial question. comicbooks.com