Life, 1896-05-21 · page 13 of 20
Life — May 21, 1896 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct satirical pieces from *Life* magazine (likely late 19th century, given references to Colonel Waring). **"A Needless Nuisance"** criticizes Colonel Waring, New York's street-cleaning commissioner, for scheduling garbage collection during peak morning hours (9-11 AM) in fashionable neighborhoods, creating dust clouds. The satire argues this is illogical and that no other civilized city tolerates such poor planning—a veiled criticism of municipal incompetence. **The vivisection piece** uses an analogy: just as scientists claim vivisection (animal testing) should be left to experts and public shouldn't interfere, this mirrors how the Inquisition defended torture as "technical." The satire defends public moral authority over supposedly "expert" practices. **The husband-wife joke** offers light domestic humor: a husband admires his wife's photograph so much she sarcastically suggests he display it at his club instead of looking at her in person—a jab at male distraction or vanity. The ornate illustration appears to show fashionable Victorian-era figures, likely depicting the ash-cart chaos referenced.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
413 NONPAREIL. LAS ! I cannot read her face To tell if she'll be mine, Because her type of beauty is So very, very fine. A NEEDLESS NUISANCE. ID Colonel Waring ever happen to be out-of-doors in this city between nine and eleven o'clock in the morning? If so, he may have noticed at that hour that the ash carts are thickest in the fashionable quar- ters, and that it requires an agile citizen to dodge the clouds of dust. And if he has noticed this, did he ever get so far as to inquire, “Why, of all hours in the day, should this time be selected for such a work?” It may be that Colonel Waring always wears a gray suit and doesn't mind a shower of ashes. Perhaps h: likes it. There is certainly a mystery somewhere, as we refuse to believe this gentleman so unintelligent that he has failed to realize the stu- pidity of this custom. No other | civilized city in the world would put up with such an easily abated | nuisance, and if this gentleman's intellect has already grappled with the subject and met with defeat, we earnestly entreat him to make another attack. ERTAIN “scientists” tell us that as vivisection is a technical affair the general public should not interfere. This is ingenious, but it would hardly have satisfied Protest- ants during the Inquisition if they had been informed that the details of the torture cham- ber were of a technical nature and should be left to the judg- ment of professional experts. And the great humane ma- jority of the nineteenth century are not being fooled by similar phrases, —____—_ USBAND: Do you know, my dear, I never get tired of looking at that photo- graph of you. WIFE: Why don’t you have it framed and hung up in the club? 3 Fa 5 8 ry = 2 S z 6 « § z 8 g Fs z = comicbooks.com