Life, 1896-01-16 · page 19 of 20
Life — January 16, 1896 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily an **advertisement and title page** for Life's new "Comedy" section, launching February 1, 1896. The magazine promises quarterly issues with 32 pages of illustrations by prominent artists (Gibson, Wenzel, Sullivan, etc.), devoted first to "The American Girl." The page includes two satirical items: 1. **The barber cartoon**: A simple visual gag about a customer requesting a shave while asking if the barber has anything to prevent whisker growth—an absurd contradiction played for humor. 2. **The Senator Edmunds anecdote**: A racist joke claiming it's "impossible" to march a brass band down Pennsylvania Avenue without Black people dispersing in the opposite direction. This reflects the casual racial prejudice of 1890s Life magazine. 3. **The dramatist dialogue**: Mocks theatrical producers' formulaic approach to adaptations, adding melodramatic elements (elopements, murders, prairie fires, comic Irish characters) to serious source material for commercial appeal. The page reflects Life's satirical voice targeting both everyday absurdities and cultural pretensions of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LIFE: LIFE’S COMEDY. HE first number of Lire’s ComEepy will be issued on February 1, 1896, and thereafter every three months, namely: May ist, August 1st, and No- vember 1st. It will contain 32 pages of beautifully printed illustrations on heavy calendered paper, with a specially decorated cover, printed in colors. Price Twenty-five Cents. Subscriptions One Dollar a year. Postage paid. Drawings by Gibson, Wenzell, Van Schaick, Johnson, Sullivant, and others. THE FIRST NUMBER, ISSUED FEBRUARY 1st, WILL BE DEVOTED TO THE AMERICAN GIRL. MITCHELL & MILLER, PUBLISHERS, 19 & 21 WEST 31st STREET, - - “T WANT A CLEAN SHAVE, AND HAVE YER GOT ANYTHING THAT WILL KEEP WHISKERS FROM GROWING ?” NEW YORK CITY. It is related that on one occasion Senator Edmunds was standing with a visiting English statesman on the high steps at the west side of the Capitol, look- ing down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Treasury Department. The stranger had seen much to interest and amuse him in Washington. ‘* You have a wonder- ful country and a wonderful people here, Mr. Senator. Nothing can be impossible with such go-ahead inhabitants,” “Oh, yes,” said the Senator, ‘some things are impossible here. It is im- possible to march a brass band down that avenue and have a crowd of colored people go in the opposite direction at the same time." — Pittsburg Bulletin, THEATRICAL MANAGER (breathlessly): Are you busy ? DRAMATIST: Not very. “Well, everybody is talking about a book called ‘The Pastor's Wooing, and I want a dramatization of it right away. Can you do it?” ** Dramatize ‘ The Pastor’s Wooing ?’” “Yes, that’s it. Work in a few elopements and murders and that sort of thing, you know, and a prairie fire and a cyclone—got the machinery all ready —and put in alow comedy part for Jinks, he’s the best stage Irishman in the country you know, and last week I got two of the funniest trick mules you ever saw. Big bargain, too. Work them in somehow. I'm in a hurry. See you later."—Pittsurg Comet.