Life, 1895-06-13 · page 9 of 16
Life — June 13, 1895 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 391 This page contains a fictional narrative with illustrations about a man's romantic and moral decline. The story describes how a man, after being rejected by a woman, pursues a life of pleasure and excess, eventually becoming dissolute by middle age. Twenty years later, now forty-one, he's aged significantly—dabbled in "Obesity Cures," has eye pouches, gray hair, and creaky joints. The narrative satirizes the consequences of hedonism and lost potential. The woman's dismissive response ("Why, he is even younger than I thought") mocks his premature aging from dissipation. The captions "The Passer-by Were Deceived Until—" and "The Rug Slipped Down" suggest ironic reversal or exposure of his deteriorated state beneath outward appearances. This is social satire about vanity, excess, and wasted life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
391 | | By this time he had dabbled in Obesity Cures, developed lead col- ored pouches under his eyes, and his hair was gray and scanty. His joints cracked loudly, as he stretched forth his hands, and paid | his court to his divinity in the fol- ! lowing impassioned terms : \y “Tam a young man—vwith all H my life before me! Although no 1] Saint—I have a clean Record! 1 | } | feel that I am called to glorious possibiliti Come to my arms —and with me walk down the long | vistas of the Future!!!" } And this woman also shook her head, and turned away to hide a | smile, saying to herself : | * He must really be very old to | talk like that!" Jessie M. Wood, AGLEIGH (rapturously) : Zz Did you ever see Brainwaves, the poet, in one of his rare mo- ments ? WAGLEIGH: I guess so, I met him at dinner. offer to you. I am tired of every- thing. Everything bores me. Satiety has been my ruin! But if you like to take pity on a man who has drunk the cup of Pleasure to its bitter dregs, and frittered away a noble career, I am willing to devote the poor remnant of my life to you entirely.” And the woman shook her head, and turned aside to hide a smile, saying to herself, “ Why, he is even younger than I thought!” . . . . . Twenty years later, he was naturally forty-one. He now pre- ferred the Circus to French Balls, watched baseball games instead of playing Poker, and was pretty nearly convinced that there were a great many things which he didn’t know, and would probably die in ignorance of. He admired a woman whose = age was a temporary twenty-two, whose bright hair was indigen- ous, and whose tense was decidedly Future, THE RUG SLIPPED DOWN, comicbooks.com