Puck — August 27, 1879 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of Puck Magazine Page 887 This page contains **three distinct satirical articles** rather than a single cartoon: 1. **"A Great Advertising Dodge"** mocks the dead-man-walking scheme where deceased debtors were publicly advertised as "alive" to collect payments—a scam exploiting creditors' gullibility. 2. **"Our Lottery System"** criticizes newspaper lotteries as fraudulent schemes. The accompanying engraving shows a lottery wheel. The satire exposes how newspapers advertise impossible odds and non-existent prizes while enriching themselves through advertising revenue. 3. **"Shakspere Studies"** provides obscure textual analysis of Macbeth and other Shakespeare plays—likely parodying overly pedantic literary scholarship. The page exemplifies Puck's blend of **social critique and humor**, targeting fraud, gullibility, and pretension in American life.