Life, 1896-05-07 · page 7 of 20
Life — May 7, 1896 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 367 This page contains three satirical pieces: 1. **"The Ass in the Lion's Skin"** — A fable about an ass wearing a lion's skin who frightens beasts until dying of old age. The moral critiques bluffing: "A good bluff, well chucked, is liable to do considerable execution." 2. **"Research Rewarded"** — A brief joke about a child finding noise comes from himself. 3. **"Didn't Agree with 'Rastus'"** — A longer anecdote mocking racial stereotypes, featuring dialect humor about a Black barber named Rastus whose apprentice ("dat boy") supposedly went mad after a German customer's aggressive shaving demands. The page also includes a portrait sketch captioned as "my cousin George" about to be weighed before a steeplechase (horse race). The content reflects early-20th-century American satirical magazine conventions, including ethnic caricature.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
*LIFE- FABLES FOR THE TIMES. THE ASS IN THE LION'S SKIN. A® ass, by some means unknown to the writer, having managed to get into a lion's skin, ran around the neighborhood frightening the beasts into fits. When he brayed, they said: ‘Jupiter! what a magnificent bass voice he has!” and he was the pantata of that- district until he died of old age. Immoral: A good bluff, well chucked, is liable to do considerable execution. H. W. Phillips. RESEARCH * EWARDED. “T ITTLE Johnny opened his drum yesterday to find where the ~ noise came from.” ‘Did he find out?" “Yes, When his father came home, the noise came from little Johnny.” you recall any mention of cannibalism in the Bible?” “Certainly. Don’t you remember where the Hebrews are forbidden to eat pork LEN -YORK.. 6c KD 1897. D° DIDN'T AGREE WITH ’RASTUS. “e wears the matter with your boy 'Rastus?” asked a white gentleman in Los Angeles of an old colored man. “Dat boy struck mighty hard luck,” replied the old man, ‘*He dun been studin' de shavin’ and barberin’ bizness. He's a ‘prentice, dey calls it—blackin’ shoes an’ wiskin’ folks wif a duster an’ makin’ hisself generally handy. But he never got de chance to cut hair before yesterday, when a gemman rush in, so “Rastus say, mighty quick like an’ fling hisself into de chair an’ say: ‘Shingle my hair quick, yo’ black rascal.’ All de bosses done gone to dey dinner, so ‘Rastus spec it was his time; so he slide out de do’ an’ study de shinglin’ on de roof a minute an’ sets to. W'en he finish an’ han’ de glass to de man he say he act like he done gone crazy. He hit 'Rastus over de head wif a cup an’ chase him out de shop an’ clean down de street wif a razor. ‘Rastus done been sick ever since.” T is strange that the learned ladies who built the ‘* Woman's Bible” with arguments in favor of her emancipation should have {overlooked the fact that the patriarchs evidently did the PorTRaIT or my CoustN Groxce, THE bisTINcUISHED GENTLE. housework. - Adam helped make the fall clothing and Noah MAN RIDER, ABOUT TO BE WEIGHED BEFORE A STEEPLE-cHase, preserved pairs in the Ark. comicbooks.com