Life, 1896-01-30 · page 13 of 20
Life — January 30, 1896 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page collects brief humorous anecdotes and cartoons mocking American society. **"Very Disturbing"** jokes about a woman's anxiety over finances rather than the sermon itself—satirizing materialism among the wealthy. **"A Good Idea"** mocks servant girls' logic: Mrs. Kingley suggests sending fighting servants shopping together so they'll behave properly in public, where they "wouldn't be noticed"—implying servants hide their true nature in society. **"The Missionary's Awful Fate"** uses dark humor: a missionary escapes cannibals in Fiji only to face a "worse" fate—being given a hundred wives. This plays on Victorian anxieties about marriage and masculine domesticity. **"No Cause for Alarm"** satirizes the New York *World* newspaper's editorializing about banker J.P. Morgan and political matters, suggesting the paper is self-important and makes sweeping proclamations while pretending to maintain national safety. **"A Unique Distinction"** notes the Duke of Marlborough and his wife both have parents married by a New York Mayor—a trivial "distinction" mocking aristocratic genealogical obsessions. The final cartoon (partially visible) appears to reference financial/pawn-shop humor, though details are unclear.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
8I VERY DISTURBING. THE MISSIONARY’S AWFUL FATE. se ID you enjoy the sermon, E sailed away to the Fiji Isles, dear?" said Mrs. Collingwood But he was not slain on the shore, to her husband, after church. Nor fattened ahead for a cannibal spread, “No, I dreamt that a note for As others had been before ; . $1,000 was due, and I hadn't a cent But he met with a far more terrible fate to pay it with.” ‘ A Than those who had lost their lives, ee R R For the chieftain grim took a fancy to him, A GOOD IDEA. \ And gave him a hundred wives. RS. KINGLEY: My two ser- ———— vant girls fight like cats and i : NO CAUSE FOR ALARM, dogs. ; T the hour when this edition of Lire went Mrs. BINGO: And yet you say that to press, the New York World had not they went shopping together yester- FT we yet caused criminal proceedings to be commenced ee yes, 18ers mY against banker Pierpoint Morgan for his efforts to sustain the credit of the country. tO BO down'to = dry goods store Thrice or four times admirable is Power when Mercy is weer they, woulda’t be noticed :and its yoke-fellow. The World has not yet divulged whom it has chosen to be ave aout our next president, or whether its mind is yet wholly made up about the abo- lition of the United States Senate. Jupiter sometimes nods, but the Wor/a stays awake all night and the country continues to be safe. A UNIQUE DISTINCTION. THe young Duke of Marlborough and his wife are the only couple whose names appear in the Almanac de Gotha, both of whom can boast the distinction of having had a parent married by a Mayor of New York. It is well for married peo- ple to have all things in common and to be as nearly equal as possible in their usu- fruct of special advantages. “FISH CAKES A LA FINANCIERE,” IT READ ON THE BILL OF FARE, BUT WHEN MR. HOMITSKY, WHO IS IN THE PAWNBROKING LINE, ORDERED THEM, HE HAD NO IDEA HOW THEY WOULD BE SERVED, comicbooks.com