This may look like just an old, worn-out book that could easily finish in the arms of fire. Don't even doubt that it would be perfect to light up and warm some souls sitting in the bleakness and considering how dry the leaves are, it would be a spectacular fire. But it wouldn't last long. It would burn down quickly. So, it's better to read from here, just let me open that closed book for you and see what it hides.
The first page reveals the title of a magazine, Borsszem Jankó.
Place of publishing: Budapest.
Year of publishing: 1890.
That year, 1890, is already the 23rd year of publishing.
This book is a part of our family heritage. It comes from the part of my great-grandma's family who lived in Budapest. Though I don't know how they got the collection of these magazines into one book, from that year 1890. Btw, the book contains all the published issues from that entire year, bound in one hardcover book.
There are a few people on Hive who could read and understand it, so if they don't mind I am (now I am doing it shamelessly 😂) tagging 
{Let me know if you don't want to be tagged, I will remove the mention then 😇}
For those who wouldn't understand a word from these pages, I will translate some little parts of the texts.
So, Borsszem Jankó was a political tabloid and its target audience was the urban bourgeoisie of Budapest. Seems that it had around two thousand copies per issue in successful times. Flipping through the pages I didn't need a lot of time to realize that the writings have a satirical character. The caricatures in the magazine are pretty artistic and, of course, everything was printed in black but when my grandmother was small (we are now talking about the 30ies of the 20th century) she found it interesting to colour these pages. Oops. You can see it on the very first page, the colours are my grandmother's inspiration, as well as the blue and red colours on the following page:
Some of the drawings survived the temptations of colouring.
I feel sorry for those who can't understand the texts but there are too many interesting columns. At least I will do with this one, published on page 10, on 13 July 1890:
Adóemelési indokok.
- Ha az illető sokat költ (mert ha nem volna neki, nem költene.)
- Ha semmit se költ (mert akkor megmarad a pénze.)
- Ha nagy üzlete van (mert akkor sokat keres.)
- Ha kicsiny az üzlete (mert csekély a költsége.)
- Ha van földje, üzlete vagy keresete (mert az ilyen fizethet.)
- Ha nincsen (mert akkor sok pénzének kell lenni, hogy mégis megéljen.)
- Ha jó esztendeje volt (hadd fizessen!)
- Ha rosz esztendeje volt (mert borura derü következik.)
- Ha birtokot vett ( mert nyilván sok a pénze.)
- Ha birtokot eladott (mert pénzhez jutott.)
- Ha tavaly nem emelték az adóját (most elbirja.)
- Ha tavaly fölemelték (mert akkor se halt bele.)
- Ha vannak gyermekei (gyermek az vagyon.)
- Ha nincenek (mert sokat megtakarit.)
- Ha jó a felesége (mert az valóságos kincs.)
- Ha rosz a felesége (mert ennek ugyis mindegy.)
So, the translation would be something like this:
Tax increase reasons.
- If the person spends a lot (because if it wasn't for him, he wouldn't spend.)
- If he doesn't spend anything (because then his money will remain.)
- If he has a big business (because then he earns a lot.)
- If his business is small (because the costs are low.)
- If he has land, a business or income (because that can pay.)
- If he doesn't have one (because then he has to have a lot of money to survive anyway.)
- If he had a good year (let it pay!)
- If he had a bad year (because there will be good after bad.)
- If he bought property (because he obviously has a lot of money.)
- If he sold property (because he got money.)
- If his taxes were not raised last year (he can handle it now.)
- If it was raised last year (because he didn't die then either.)
- If he has children (children are assets.)
- If he doesn't have children (because it saves a lot.)
- If his wife is good (because she is a real treasure.)
- If his wife is bad (because now it doesn't matter anyway.)
I am not sure if it is the same funny in English, but I am still laughing for the tax increase reasons 😂
Moving to a funny image:
There was a railway accident and the man was helping the lady, asking her did she hurt herself a lot. She answered: Jesus!... Where is my new hat!?
The poem from the following page... it says they are modern romances...
It is hard to translate poetry, so in short: a girl had three "knights", she didn't know to which one to give her heart. Not to hurt any of them, one spring morning she escaped with the fourth one! 😆
Apart from the political, satiric and comic texts and poems, there were a lot of advertisements. Mainly medicaments and solutions to improve health.
I really like the velocipede advertisement. Herbster Károly was selling 100 pieces of velocipedes, made of the finest English steel and equipped with bells and lamps. They had a 1-year warranty.
It was this summer that I was reading this collection of magazines in my parent's home. The book is now 133 years old, and I do hope it will last for a few generations more.
I hope you guys also had some fun with Borsszem Jankó...
Believe me, the Hungarian language is everything but not easy 😁