An Oddity of an Ending

This stock engraving cut from the A.N. Kellogg Newspaper Co. shows how far the illustration of mummies has degraded since the first engravings in 1823. There is no attempt to render the coffin or the mummy accurately and so one has to wonder what would be the uses for this cut. It seems to be more humorous than serious, and almost illustrates a mummy joke (from the June 5, 1892 Brooklyn Eagle).

Two workers in a museum were moving a mummy and its coffin to another area when they dropped it, and the mummy fell out and everything was smashed. The two men debated about who was going to pay for the damages when the mummy spoke up and said "Well, I can't, I'm dead broke."