Life, 1884-05-08 · page 11 of 16
Life — May 8, 1884 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Explanation for Modern Readers This page contains two satirical pieces mocking upper-class Victorian social practices. **The Cartoon** depicts a boy at dancing school complaining that the teacher wouldn't assign him a partner, leaving "empty girls" without dance partners—humor derived from the awkwardness of Victorian courtship rituals and gender dynamics in supervised social settings. **"Slumming"** is a dialogue poem satirizing a fashionable upper-class pastime where wealthy people would visit poor neighborhoods ("hovels" and "slums") for charity work, treating it as entertainment. The husband character ridicules his wife's approach: she wants to visit the poor in May with flowers and peaches as a trendy social activity, while he argues that *real* charity means providing substantial help (steak) in winter when the poor actually need it. The satire critiques the performative, seasonal nature of wealthy people's charitable gestures—doing good as fashion rather than genuine need. Both pieces mock Victorian social conventions and the gap between appearance and substance.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“WELL, JACK, DID YOU HAVE A NICE TIME AT DANCING SCHOOL ?” “PRETTY GOOD, ONLY THE TEACHER WOULD N’T GIVE ME A PARTNER, AND THERE WERE TWO OR THREE EMPTY GIRLS ALL THE. TIME ye HOUSEHOLD HINTS. This column will be devoted entirely to the interests of ECONOMICAL HOUSE- KEEPING. Reliable information for the guidance of young mothers and housekeepers will be supplied by a lady of experience and ability. | ‘HE requsites for the best kind of a “batter” can be ascertained by carefully reading the base-ball news. If you have any tapioca pudding left over from dessert, don’t throw it away. Save it to paste pictures into the scrap-book with. Try to teach your laundress or washerwoman not to starch the handker- chiefs more stiffly than the shirt bosoms if you would make home happy. One of the most satisfactory coverings for a piano-stool is a covering of dust, as it proves that no one in the house is learning to sing “In the Gloaming.” “ How can I make rye bread rise in the morning, in time for breakfast ?” writes “ Younc Wire.” Why, that’s easy enough. Put in plenty of yeast the night before. The trouble that young wives generally have is in making their husbands rise in the morning in time for breakfast. 263 “SLUMMING.” SHE, H, let us go a-‘ slumming" In the gentle month of May, When all the bees are humming, And the children are at play. HE, Oh, pri’ thee, what is ‘‘ slumming” In the sunlit month of May, When the honey bees are humming And the children laugh at play? SHE. Well, it’s something really novel, Is this ‘‘ slumming” in the May: You must go to every hovel, And with all the poor folk pray. HE. Yes, that is a trifle novel ; But there’s one thing I would say : Can the prayer support the hovel In the blooming month of May? SHE. Oh, no, we take them peaches, And some flowers and peas and plums; And with these our praying reaches To the great heart of the slums. HE, Well, it certainly is pretty, Is this ‘‘ slumming,” in its way ; But it seems to me a pity That you don’t give steak—in May. SHE. Oh, how can you be so horrid ? Charles, you don’t know what you say; Why, you know the weather’s torrid, And—well—steak is steak—in May. HE, Well, I never go a-‘‘ slumming "” In the sunlit month of May, When the honey bees are humming And the children laugh and play. In the winter oft I tarry *Mid the poor of whom you speak ; And the rare old beef I carry Drives the tear from many a cheek. But Ill never go a-‘‘ slumming” For the fashion of a day, When the honey bees are humming In the sunlit month of May. SHE, Very well, sir, you may tarry With your steak till Judgment day ! I will go and look for Harry: He'll go ‘‘ slumming” in the May. W. J. HeNDERsoN, comicbooks.com