Life, 1913-10-16 · page 32 of 44
Life — October 16, 1913 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page mixes humor columns with period advertisements. The main satirical content includes: **"Our Funny Language"** uses recursive wordplay about "sleepers" (train cars and people who sleep in them), deliberately confusing the same word's multiple meanings until the sentence becomes nonsensical. The joke targets the absurdity of English homonyms. **Miscellaneous jokes** scattered throughout mock contemporary figures: a crane practicing to become a "classic dancer," a book agent who lost thirty-five pounds (implying failure), and a veterinarian who stops treating deadbeat clients by concluding they're not gentlemen. **The cartoon** (lower right) shows a child playing roughly with a dog, captioned about getting the dog's tail covered in molasses and jam—slapstick humor at the child's expense. The page is primarily **advertisements** for whiskey (Gibson's Rye), real estate (Fieldston Estate), cigarettes (Egyptian Deities), and a psychic company—reflecting early 20th-century consumer culture. The satirical content is secondary to commercial messaging.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
rOOLTS A Our Funny Language A sleeper is one who sleeps. A sleeper is that in which a sleeper sleeps. A sleeper is that on which the sleeper runs while the sleeper sleeps. There- fore, while the.sleeper -sleeps in the sleeper the sleeper. carries the sleeper over the, sleeper under the sleeper until the sleeper, which carries the sleeper, jumps the sleeper and wakes the sleeper in the sleeper by striking the sleeper under the sleeper on the sleeper, and there is no longer any sleep for the sleeper sleeping in the sleeper on the sleeper.—Ladies’ Home Journal. Comfort Without Extravagance, Hotel Woodstock, New York “Watat makes you stand on one foot and move your shoulders in that way asked the snipe. “ Well,”" replied the crane, “there's no chance of my learning to sing,*so I'm practicing to see ‘if 1 cfn’t” beéotie ‘a classic dancer."—Washington Star. Ina Pinch, usé ALLEN'S FOOT-EASE ” THE BAFFLING PSYCHIC PHENOMENA OF THE 20TH CENTUN : Was tearful and sad Just Completed at : ; | ca lavesteate this Comp “Be good,” whispered mother. veh csi a te Pielosten . “Make good,” counseled dad. ‘WivernatesensRarsea —Pittsburgh Post. OM English Style» ston 1e piquancy of a Sherbet is attained by using a dash of ere Abbseee jitters. Sample of bitters by mail, 2 cts, in stamps. < etree C.W. Abbott & C timore, Md. ee oo awe cna ek or any division of the New “a Was a book agent once . York Ceatral to. Riverdsie How long did you stick to it? here Corte, “Until I had lost about thirty-five pounds."—Cleveland Plain Dealer. PSYCHO M’F'G COMPANY @ept. a) 2020 Rid: Philadelpti A Connoisseur A well-known racehorse owner said to a veterinary surgeon: r “ How is it you haven't called on me CIBSON'S RYE for your account?” - A WHISKEY OF TRADITIONS... .- i “Ob,” said the vet. “I never ask a RADITIO . gentleman for money. NAL for high quality, absolute “Indeed! Then how d'you get on if purity,,satisfying richness, velvety mellowness, he don't pay?” T ~ delightfal’ fragrance — nearly -80 “years ‘ the “ Why, after a certain time I conclude whiskey standard of the world. Every drop he’s not a gentleman, and then I ask of Gibson's is made from selected, matured him."—Tit-Bits, tye and sparkling spring@M™Mter; ripened in a fixed tem- perature, and held:in tiginal wood. We especially Bt 1900—the finest old whiskey 6 eS 2! in sealed demijohns, “i's GREAT FUN TO PLAY WITH THIS YOUNcSTER. ME ALWAYS GETS) M¥ TAIL: comicbooks.com