Life, 1896-10-22 · page 3 of 26
Life — October 22, 1896 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page (Volume XXVIII, Number 721) **Top Cartoon:** Shows three women in an interior, discussing a "cable-car accident." The humor concerns overcrowding at a "bargain-counter sale"—a social commentary on the era's retail shopping frenzies, particularly women's department store sales. The exaggerated costumes and fashion suggest early 20th-century consumerism. **"Bryan and the Poets":** A satirical poem about William Jennings Bryan (a prominent political figure of the era), praising his oratory and calling on poets to emulate his rhetorical power. The poem celebrates his speaking ability to inspire action. **"A Doubtful Experiment":** A brief humorous dialogue where a man asks another to take his wife; the response that "her husband might object" is the joke's punchline. **Right illustration:** Shows a mechanical device for opera exercise—satirizing health trends.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
VOLUME XXVIII NUMBER 721 “wary, MOTHER DEAR, WHAT HAS HAPPENED, A CABLE-CAR ACCIDENT?” “NO. U'VE JUST BEEN TO A BARGAIN-COUNTER SALE WHERE THERE WAS A LITTLE OVERCROWDING.” BRYAN AND THE POETS. Newspaper Note.—Candidate Bryan, says all the pocts are for free silver. ELLOW Poets, hear the speaker, He whospeaks by words of mouth, Through the frosts of coming winter, Through the sunshine of the South; Filling all the air with speeches, Which instruct us ‘and inspire All our quills to higher effort— Let us rise and strike the lyre. We have heard the soulful measures Of his sweet, mellifluous tones, Which have moved our waiting spirit, And have reached our marrow-bones; We have heard the cords of language He has piled up for the fire That may warm his cause—and brothers, Let us rise and strike the lyre. We have caught the soft insistence Of his arguments, and when We have felt the spirit moving, We have followed with the pen; He has said it in the papers, Sent it home to son and sire, With a nerve that ought to make us Love to rise and strike the lyre. We have heard his taper language Sweep the silver harp-strings, and We have thought it was the music Of a white-winged angel band; We have heard him say free silver Was the one thing to inspire Poetry—and fellow poets, Let us rise and strike the lyre. W, J. Lampton, P. $.—There is another way than the above of spelling lyre, but it is not so poetic. WSL. A DOUBTFUL EXPERIMENT. Howse: Why don’t you take a wife, old man? Cumso: Her husband might object. T is not the lining, but the cloud, that seems to be silver. f ye > SIGNOR GESTICULETTI NOW TAKES 1113, DAILY DUMBBELL EXESCISES DURING THE OPERA, comicbooks.com