Life, 1896-12-05 · page 6 of 34
Life — December 5, 1896 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This page contains a sketch illustration accompanying personal narrative text, not a political cartoon. The sketch appears to be a portrait study rendered in dark ink, showing a profile view of a face with distinctive features. The accompanying text is a reminiscence about family gatherings, mentioning the Institute of Technology, Christmas gifts, and Miss Bunkerill. The narrator describes planning a reunion "at the Bunkerill's on Beacon street" and recounts a winter storm that disrupted plans—"The east wind came up and began to sough terribly against the ivy-covered walls." The illustration serves as decorative accompaniment to this domestic narrative rather than functioning as satirical commentary. Without additional context identifying the specific person depicted, I cannot determine if this is a portrait of a named individual or a generic illustrative figure.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
442 street, not far from the Institute of Tech- nology. John was absent from this fam- ily re-union, having gone to offer himself as a Christmas gift to Miss Bunkerill, but in view of the possibilities neither his mother nor 1 objected. Under other circumstances it would have seemed like neglect. As it was, however, we could not do other than approve. "We'll all be to- gether next year,’ said my wife. ‘At the Bunkerill’s on Beacon street,” she added, with a smile of pleasure. “1 hoped so—and expected it to be so —and then the thing happened that de- stroyed all our plans. The cast wind came up and began to sough terribly against the ivy-cov- ered walls of my daughter's house. The street was white with snow. trolley cars were stall- ed upalong Boy! street for half a mile, and upon Common- wealth avenue the bronze eyes of the sculptured Garrison alone peeped mischie vously out of thesnow that covered the bal- ance of that famous effigy.as thoughchal- lenging the boys from Cambridge to try to play their pranksuponhimnow. It was such a terrible night that, arrayed in my dressing-gown WHO ARE YOU?!” WH-WH Ccomicbooks.com