Life, 1883-04-19 · page 5 of 16
Life — April 19, 1883 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Demoralizing Effect of Five O'Clock Teas" This satirical illustration mocks the social custom of afternoon tea gatherings among the wealthy. The cartoon depicts an elegant tea party where guests converse stiffly in formal dress. The accompanying dialogue between "Charles Bommot" and "Miss Florence Bulleye" ridicules how tea culture has become performative—a required social ritual where attendees must constantly hold teacups and maintain appearances. The satire suggests that participating in such teas is obligatory for respectability, whether you're a man ("tea-daus") or woman ("tea-dea"). The lower story, "Judkins' Boy," shifts to a serious narrative about a working-class pirate's son seeking redemption through honest labor—contrasting sharply with the shallow upper-class tea ceremony above.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
DEMORALIZING EFFECT OF FIVE O'CLOCK TEAS. Charles Bonmot (who sets up for a wit): NEVER SEE YOU WITHOUT A CUP OF TEA: WHAT A LIVING PRAISE TO THE ARTICLE YOU ARE,—A REGULAR “ fea-deum,” OR AS YOU'RE A WOMAN YOU MUST BE “ fea dea.” Miss Florence Bullseye (who thinks him something of a pedant): YES, AND BEING A MAN IT MUST BE THAT YOU ARE “‘fea-deus !" JUDKINS’ BOY. IRUTS is reckless to a fault. They ain't afeard of nobody ner nothin’! Ef ever you insult a pirut onc't, he'll foller you to the grave but what he will revenge his wron, Piruts all looks like pictures of * Buffalo Bill"—only they don't shave off the whiskers that sticks out over the collar of their low-neck shirt. Every day is a picknick for the piruts of the high seas. They eat gunpowder and drink blood to make “em savidge, and then they kill people all day, and set up all night and tell ghost stories and sing songs such as mortal ear would quail to listen to. Piruts never comes on shore only when they run out of tobacker. And then it’s a cold day if they don’t land at midnight, and dis- guize theirselves and slip up in town like a sleuth houn’, so’s the Grand Jury can’t git onto ‘em, They don't care fer the police any more than us people who dwells nght in their midst, Pirnts makes big wages and spends it like a king. ‘‘ Come easy, go easy,” is the fatal wachword of them whose deeds is Deth! Onc’t they was a pirut turned out of house and home by his cruel parents when he was but a kid, and so he always went by that name, He was thurst adrift without a nickel, and sailed fer dis- tant shores to hide his shame fer those he loved. In the dead of night he stold a new suit of the captain's clothes. _And when he growed op big enough to fit ‘em, he gayly dressed hissef and went up and pact the quarter-deck in deep thought. He had not forgot how the captain onc’t had him lashed to the jibboom-podp and whipped. That stung his proud spirit even then ; and so the first thing he done was to slip up behind the cruel officer and push him over- board. Then the ship was his fer better er fer werse. And so he took command, and hung high upon the beetling mast the pi- rut flag, Then he took the bible his old mother give him when he lit out from home, and tied a darnic round it and sunk it in the sand with a mocking laugh. Then it was that he was ready fer the pirut’s wild seafaring life. He worked the business fer all they was in it fer many years, but was run in at last. And, stand- ing on the gallus-tree, he sung a song which was all wrote off by hissef. And then they knocked the trapon him. And thus the brave man died and never made a kick. In life he was always careful with his means, and saved up vast welth, which he dug holes and burried, and died with the secret locked in his bosom to this day. ~ comicbooks.com