Life, 1895-07-25 · page 12 of 14
Life — July 25, 1895 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Page Analysis This page from *Life* magazine contains humorous commentary on contemporary issues, primarily through text rather than political cartoons. The **"Cycling Song"** celebrates the new bicycle craze, depicting cyclists as reckless—the narrator gleefully describes hitting a "fat man" and sending him rolling in mud, viewing him as a worthy "foe." This satirizes the dangerous behavior of cyclists in urban areas and their dismissive attitude toward pedestrians. **"A Hopeless Case"** attacks religious hypocrisy at Asbury Park and Ocean Grove, New Jersey—a Methodist resort town. The piece mocks church leaders who object to a railroad station operating on Sabbath-leased land, calling them "ecclesiastical asses" and "long eared brothers." The satire suggests their supposed piety masks hypocrisy and cant so entrenched it cannot be reformed. The remaining brief items offer general social commentary—a medical joke about a man's low pulse, and a quip about pugilists with inflated egos. The page reflects *Life's* role as a satirical voice criticizing both emerging urban dangers (cycling) and institutional religious pretension.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
z wl Ww a w > < = FE x Ss = FE < = = CYCLING SONG. HE dew reflects the coming day ; I mount my wheel and speed away Along the street as if on wings, The wild wind through my whiskers sings. fat man from afar, In waiting for a morning car; A jolt, a crash, a sickening thud ; I send him rolling in the mud With that stern joy which cyclers feel In foemen worthy of their wheel, A HOPEL SS CASE. HE religious quiet and holy sanctity that on the | Sabbath pervade the sacred pre- cincts of Asbury Park, have been rudely broken in upon by the blasphemic shriek of a loco- motive and the irreverential arrival of a naughty mail train. It seems that the railroad station at Asbury Park is situated on land leased from the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Associa- tion, and the collection of eccle- siastical asses who control that beatific order object to have the impious Government intrude upon their commingled bray- ings, as happened on a recent Sunday. If a ray of real piety should ever penetrate into the close | quarters occupied by the limited cerebral functions of the long eared brothers of Ocean Grove, what would happen to the bac- teria of cant and hypocrisy that inhabit those restricted regions ? Lire is very much afraid that the disease is too far advanced to admit of much hope in a case like this, even supposing such a thing were possible. OCTOR: What's the atient’s pulse ? Twenty-five. Heavens! Why, the man won't live an hour. NR This man is from Philadelphia. HE pugilist with the swelled head seldom gets it in battle. Ane manife Upor was ap Whilst monica “Do Emper regime will he Tue positio wit, M chubby upon tt and fro “WI “It se “Ye teaches People