Life, 1896-07-16 · page 19 of 20
Life — July 16, 1896 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The cartoon depicts a policeman instructing children that flowers cannot be purchased for funerals after midnight on Saturday, due to headquarters orders. This satirizes **strict Sunday closing laws** enforced in early 20th-century America. Many states and cities prohibited commercial transactions on Sundays for religious reasons. The joke's dark humor: if someone dies Saturday night, grieving families cannot buy flowers for the funeral service because flower shops must close by midnight and remain closed all Sunday. The rule creates an absurd situation where religious observance prevents a basic funeral practice. The character's dialect ("yous," "yer") marks him as a working-class Irish or Italian immigrant cop—typical of urban police forces. The cartoon mocks the inflexibility of Sunday laws and their real human consequences, using this impossible scenario to criticize excessive religious regulation of commerce. The surrounding page contains period advertisements (Anheuser-Busch malt drink, patent medicines, bicycle saddles), typical of *Life* magazine's revenue model.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Fini that we healthfuloess of the saddle was a vital point In bleycliog ; stant experiments since | have resulted in the pro- daction of our present saddle. In fact it not only is healthful and 5. comfortable, but dure fas. blo and Bandsome, HULBERT Bros.& Co. MAJESTIC) 26 west BICYCLES { 23° ST. NEW ALLLS —_ pan seeessssasssce 6 Blair's Pills. Great English Remedy tor ‘GOUT and RHEUMATISM. SAPE, SURE, EFFECTIVE. Droggiete, C3 4 wil OBem St, New Yorn.' 1 fra Cures ail ow HOW TO MAKE la tty ele < i which cam be rime 0 flowy eg inwelg ders died by the ust of return mail ADIPO-MALENE E. L E MARSH & CO. Vedisen ta. Priedeptin, Pa NO SUNDAY FLOWERS. EKE, IF ANY O' YOU YOUNGSTERS OR YEK FAMILIES DIE APTEK THIS, YOUS Ac a wean | | Beate esi ogra Pn Every nursing moth- er needs the kind of nourishment there is in ANHEUSER- ee —the food drink— The baby needs it in order togrow healthy and plump: the mother needs it in order to keep healthy and plump. For sale by all druggists’. Prepared by ANHEUSER-BUSCH BREWING ASSOCIATION, St. Louis, U. S. A. Send for handsomely illustrated colored booklets and other reading matter, comicbooks.com