Life, 1885-01-29 · page 3 of 16
Life — January 29, 1885 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Explanation for Modern Readers The main illustration, titled "Portrait of a Lady," satirizes English high society's fashion obsession. It depicts a wealthy woman walking multiple dogs along what appears to be a waterfront promenade—likely a fashionable public space where the elite displayed their status. The accompanying caption mocks how English aristocratic women maintained large dog retinues as status symbols, suggesting this practice was so common that "an occasional stroll about Castle Garden might result in something, you know." The poem "Versification" below appears to be romantic verse about a courtship walk, while "A Cranial Suggestion" offers a humorous jab at bald men, implying baldness indicates low intelligence. The satire targets vanity and superficiality in upper-class society.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
PORTRAIT OF A LADY. AS IT IS THE FASHION IN ENGLAND TO HAVE A NUMEROUS FOLLOWING OF DOGS, OUR CHARMING FRIEND, MISS ANGLO, IS NOT THE ONE TO LOSE CASTE IN HER OWN COUNTRY BY IGNORING THE “CORRECT THING" YOU KNOW. AND THEN, AGAIN, YOU KNOW, OR YOU DON’T KNOW, SO MANY NOBLEMEN ARE EMIGRATING TO THIS COUNTRY THAT AN OCCASIONAL STROLL ABOUT CASTLE GARDEN MIGHT RESULT IN SOMETHING, YOU KNOW. VERSIFICATION. But we paused on the bridge, whose gray arches ar) a Look down on the bridge in the brook, S, bright as.the golden June weather, And there in the shade of the larches Came Rose with her prayer-book and fan Her little gloved fingers I took, Through the church door, and homeward together ! We walked, and my wooing began. And said : “ Rose, you ‘ve been kissed in a sonnet . In which I my emotions rehearse,” She chatted of anthem aad sermon s | When a voice ‘neath the pretty pink bonnet I thought of her lips and blue eyes— Murmured: “Darling, Iam not averse.” Of her light dainty step in the German— ¥ F.F Till vaguer became my replies, ee A CRANIAL SUGGESTION.—The tonsorial scientists assure us that hair grows freely on the quickened scalp. It is there- fore a fair inference that a bald head is evidence of a numb- Which she, alas! seemed not to guess. skull, As I vainly endeavored to fashion Some phrase that should fitly express, Or hint of, that burden of passion comicbooks.com