Life, 1899-01-12 · page 3 of 20
Life — January 12, 1899 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 23 This page contains two sections: an illustration titled "Another Case" depicting a domestic medical consultation scene, and a brief article "At Last!" about Fifth Avenue acquiring a stage line from the Third Avenue Railroad. The illustration satirizes a common social scenario: a wealthy husband consults a doctor about his wife's health, then asks if she needs a European trip. When the doctor suggests a thorough diagnosis first, the husband balks at the cost. The humor lies in mocking affluent husbands' readiness to spend lavishly on travel while resisting medical expenses—exposing priorities and marital dynamics of the era's upper class. The "At Last!" section celebrates replacing horse-drawn stages with motorized vehicles, framing this as progress after "weary years of decrepit horses and ramshackle vehicles."
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ANOTHER CASE. “ AFTER DIAGNOSING YOUR WIFE'S CASE, MR. STOCKSONBONDS, I WOULD ADVISE 4 RCROPRAN TRIP.” “BUT IF 1 PAY POR SUCH A TRIP I SHA'N'T BE ABLE TO PAY YOUR BILL, DOCTOR.” “ PERHAPS, ON SECOND THOUGHTS, I HAD BETTER MAKE A MORE THOROUGH DIAGNOSIS OF 1 At Last! who can wait, New \s York has been able to wait a long time for an improvement 2 in transportation on Fifth ~ Avenue, Now, after weary years of decrepit horses and ramsbacklo vehicles, comes tho news that the A™ things como to him Reed Fifth Avenue stago lino has been bought by the Third Avenue Railroad, Hail the glad tidings! Doubtless the trade means auto- mobile stages, which will convey passengers comfortably from one end of Fifth Avenue to the other, But if it meant no more than tho elimination of the present stages and the lamentable beasts that haul them, without substituting anything, it would still bu a great boon, m case.” ANY a man would consider matri. mony an overwhelming success, could he but exchange his wife, aged forty, for two aged twenty each. ON: Pop, w mean? Fatnen: It means ‘ before marriage,” my boy. does ** ante-bellum ”