Life, 1905-08-03 · page 21 of 44
Life — August 3, 1905 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains satirical humor typical of early 20th-century Life magazine. The main story, "The Water Side Is Even Worse" by Mrs. Wilson Woodrow, depicts a sentimental romantic tragedy: a man says farewell to a woman named Jam, who has become indistinguishable from her pet monkey—both wear matching scarlet dresses and fez hats. The satire mocks overly sentimental Victorian romance fiction through absurdist exaggeration; the man cannot tell woman from monkey, making emotional connection impossible. Below, "The Impossible" presents a brief dialogue joke about widow's moral character—a woman's past is unknowable and unpredictable. The final cartoon jokes about "Griggsby," who has entered the gravestone business; the punchline relies on calling him a "monumental liar," a pun on his profession dealing with monuments. These pieces exemplify Life's blend of visual satire, literary parody, and wordplay humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WATER SIDE IS EVEN WORSE. somely commonplace. I have discovered that some of those glittering, varicolored pasts don’t launder, and are apt to be expensive. Good-b ‘Jam !"" He could not see her through a mist of tears. So, thinking it her hand, he wrung the monkey’s paw until the little beast howled. « * * . * . . . He saw her a few hours later at the train. The monkey wore a scarlet dress, and a little scarlet fez, With the addition of a hand-organ strapped on her back, Jam wore the same. A great sadness lay in the eyes of both. Wheels could not speak. ‘* Good-b; said Jam. ‘The monkey and I are going out in search of respectability. We are so bored with the dead, flat level of unconvention- ality The man looked at her with his soul in his eyes, The monkey and she were so startlingly alike. In his great reverence for her, he feared to take her hand ; it mig! the monkey's, and it sometimes scratched. press his lips to hers; but dared not. He might kiss the and it frequently bit. So he mere! it them, as the train bore them s inst Jam’s. Ah, kind heaven, if he could but have told them apart ! Mrs. Wilsox Woodrow. The Impossible. % HAT sort of a woman is the widow?’* “I'm no prophet. I can’t foretell her past.”* AT THE END OF TO A SIXTREN-STORY APARTMENT, WITIL RESTFUL RESULT, Proved. Parke : By the way, what ever became of our old friend Griggsby ? Lane: Why, he’s gone into the gravestone business. “Well, I always knew he was a monumental liai comicbooks.com