Life, 1913-01-23 · page 28 of 40
Life — January 23, 1913 — page 28: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine contains several distinct satirical pieces: **"Seeing New York"** jokes about the New York Stock Exchange's expensive seat prices ($70,000), mocking the financial world's disconnect from ordinary reality. **"A Difference"** presents a Sunday school humor piece where a boy distinguishes between a pilgrim (someone who travels) and a truly good pilgrim—a gentle, innocent joke about moral character. **"The Smart Boy"** tells a troubling anecdote set in Jamaica featuring a Black shop employee who sells stale ice to a competitor's employee, using racial slurs and depicting the scenario as clever business. This reflects the racist attitudes prevalent in early 20th-century American humor magazines. **The bottom cartoon** shows a gunman reassuring a robbery victim that the gun isn't loaded—dark humor about crime and deception. **"The Sands of Time"** illustration depicts an hourglass, likely symbolizing time's passage. The page also advertises subscriptions to *Life* magazine with a free picture reproduction included. The overall content reflects *Life's* mix of gentle social satire and humor, alongside period-appropriate racial stereotyping.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SSAUT SCISSORS -+ AUT NULLUs Seeing New York Farster Jonx: This is the New York Stock Exchange, my dear. All those men running about on the floor are brokers. Mas. Joun: My! I should think they would get tired. Don't they ever sit down? Farmer Joun: I guess not. Seats here cost about $70,000 apiece. Yew York Press. A Difference The Sunday-school teacher asked his class to give him the definition of a “ pilgrim.” One little fellow said: “ Please, sir, I think a pilgrim is a man who travels a great deal. This did not exactly suit the teacher, so he said: “ Well, I travel about quite a little, but I'm not a pilgrim.” “Oh, sir, but I mean a good man,” cagerly replied the little one. —Harper’s Magazine. THE SANDS OF TIME Smart Boy Years ago in Jamaica, West Indies, before artificial ice was very well know: a shopkeeper, who tried to keep up with the times, thought he would outelass his rival across the street and purchased a thousand pounds of fine “ cool " ice, pay- ing about twelve dollars for it. He did a wonderful business the next day. All the town trade came to get a cool drink, while the shop opposite was empty. When the shopkeeper shut up that night he had made good profits and had about eight hundred pounds of ice lef The next morning his brilliant black boy, who opened up the shop, greeted him with a happy griv. “ Morning, boss,” he said. “I's done a good bit of business this morning, sah.” “ How's that, boy, how's that? “Well, sah, I sold that fool nigger in the store across the street all that stale ice that was left for fifty cents, and he never knew the difference, sah!” rybody’s people surely do get mixed up. n what wa “What should be a horse show they make a dress parade, and a dress parade they call grand opera.” —Baltimore American. ~ ished every Thursday, simultaneously ia the United States, Great Britain, Canada and British Lire. js for sale by all newsdealers in Great Britain and may be obtained from booksellers in all the principal postage to foreign countries in the Postal Union, $1.04 ches of the world. The foreign trade ied from Live's London Offce. Cannon Howse, Breams Buil Single current copies. 10 cents. Back numbers, after tiree months trom London, E. C Imaes prior t0 1910 oct ol peta, The text and ilustrations in LAK are copsrighted, Fer Reprint Rights in Great Britain apply ey Lave. 114 Ne concribution will be returned wales accompanied br stamped and addreved envelipe, Lave does met held inulf Southampton Reve, Lindon, WC. response fr the lou or moncrecurm of unnticited contribu Prompt watifcasion seauld be ent by subseribers of any change of adairen, TO NEW AND OLD SUBSCRIBERS LIFE’S Special Offer Cone. Life Pub. Co. “Bygones” (By Angus MacDonall) This Picture Free with Each Yearly Subscription A reproduction of this picture, 9} by 15 inches in size, on paper 15 by 20, will be sent on each yearly subscription entered this season. A subscription to LIFE is the best possible gift—a copy of LIFE every week, fifty-two presents a year, and this picture for Five Dollars, the regular subscription price.* Gunman: wal ua! 1 POOLED YE ALL RIGHT, THIS LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY MERE GUN AIN’T LOADED. 17 West 31st Street, New York DON’T MENTION IT, OLD TOP, THAT ROLL 1 GAVE “Subscription, $5.00 Canadian, $5.52 Foreign, $6.04 YOU 1S STAGE MONE: comicbooks.com