Life, 1895-09-19 · page 5 of 16
Life — September 19, 1895 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 181 Analysis: Life Magazine Satire This page contains three separate domestic humor sketches typical of early 20th-century Life magazine. **"Very Likely"** satirizes financial anxiety in marriage. A husband worries they can't afford a house; his wife responds that if he's "not good enough" for her now, no house will change that. The joke relies on marital tension over class aspirations. **"A Blessing in Disguise"** features two men (O'Hara and Levinsky, likely ethnic character names) discussing a new suit. O'Hara bought it cheaply after salt water shrinkage; Levinsky jokes that modern suits shrink worse than old-fashioned ones, making the damaged purchase accidentally superior. Both sketches use middle-class domestic scenarios and light ethnic humor typical of the era's satirical magazine conventions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Fiancee: ONE'S INCOME, BUT CAN WE AFFORD SUCH A NOUSE, “BUT THIS IS A GOOD DEAL LESS THAN ONE-FOURTH OF YOUR FATHER'S DEAREST? THEY SAY ONE'S RENT SHOULD ONLY BE A FOURTH OF NOME.” VERY LIKELY. IFE: The baby has a trou- y bled look. 1 wonder what = he’s thinking about ? HussBanD: He's probably wishing we lived in Greenland, my dear, where the nights are six months long. HE: HE: No man is good enough for me. 1 know that, but am I bad enough ? A BLESSING IN DISGUISE. "HARA: Lokk here, Levinsky, | bought this suit off o” ye lasht wake, an’ yistherda’ I fell off a ferry- boat, an’ the salt wather shrunk the duds roight off o’ me body ! LEvINSK Dot vos der beauty of dose suidts, Misder O'Hara. If you had on vun of dose old-fashioned, non- shringkable suidts, it vouldt haf got vater-soaked in a minute, and you vouldt haf peen trowned !