Life, 1927-02-03 · page 12 of 35
Life — February 3, 1927 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical cartoon mocks the romanticized nostalgia for the 1890s. The caption declares that despite "elaborate chambers of horrors, breathing presidents and mechanical chess players," the 1890s had "no attraction half as popular as impromptu comedy of the near-sighted patron and the wax policeman." The scene depicts a museum or exhibition space where visitors observe displays. The humor targets two things: (1) the era's fascination with crude mechanical attractions and oddities presented as entertainment, and (2) the gullibility of visitors who treat fabricated or exaggerated exhibits seriously. The "near-sighted patron" and "wax policeman" reference suggests visitors couldn't distinguish real from artificial—a jab at 1890s popular culture's low intellectual standards and the public's easy deception by commercial entertainment.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WITH ALL ITS ELABORATE MECHANICAL CHESS PLA NO ATTRACTION HALF The Gay Nineties “CHAMBERS OF HORRORS,” BREATHING PRE: Rs THE OLD Eden Musée or TUR THRILLY POPULAR AS THE USUAL IMPROMPTU COMEDY OF TILE SIGHTED PATRON AND THE WAX POLICEMAN. How to Become a Comic Strip Artist Stupy fat men running. Study \* fat men falling. Read Life of Lucrezia Borgia. Hear joke some- where. Remember it. Study plain kicking. Study face ki . Study pants kicking and the ballistics of bricks—of china—of pies. Read Murder as a Fine Art. Don't for- get your joke. Study falling into ponds—over cliffs—into mud—off ladders—through coal-holes. Learn the technique of goats, mules and mothers-in-law. Familiarize your- self with the slipping qualitics of banana skins, ice and soap. Keep your joke firmly in mind. Go to train wrecks, lynchings and mine dis- asters. Study buzz-saws. And ar- range with nurse to drop you on your head when you are two years old. S.W. Great Idea OTHAMITE: _ Distinguished visitors are given the freedom of the city and presented with a ke: Britisuer: Bah Jove! Does open the padlocks? A Careful Mother “you don’t have the Banner at your house Sundays, do you?’ “No, we gave it up for the Gazette. The comic supplement in the Banner What the h—Y!' and in the y, ‘What the ding h better for the children’s morals.” MERICANS, we read, are grad- ually acquiring a culture of their own. The only problem now is where to park it. comicbooks.com me B