Life, 1885-12-24 · page 1 of 19
Life — December 24, 1885 — page 1: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "At Nice" - Life Magazine, December 24, 1895 This is a humorous dialogue about a woman observed at Nice (the French Riviera resort). The joke relies on a gender stereotype: a male observer (apparently French-speaking) notes the woman is "fascinating and a perfect beauty" who "captivates" everyone. His companion counters that "she must be stupid on the street," questioning her intelligence. When asked why, the French-speaker delivers the punchline: "Why, yes, if she walks without talking"—implying that a woman who remains silent must be stupid, since women are stereotyped as incapable of shutting up. The satire mocks both misogynist assumptions about female intelligence and the cliché of talkative women. It's period humor playing on contemporary gender stereotypes for a wealthy, leisured audience.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
VOLUME . NEW YORK, DECEMBER 24, 1885. NUMBER 156. Entered at New York Post Office as Second-Class Mail Matter. 3805, by MITCHELL & MILLER. eganrcnenes AT NICE. She: SHE 1S FASCINATING AND A PERFECT BEAUTY. EVERYBODY IS CARRIED AWAY WITH HER. Mats ga va sans dire. fe: BUT SHE MUST BE STUPID ON THE STREET. She: ON THE STREET? He (who understands French, you know): WHY, YES, IF SHE WALKS WITHOUT TALKING, comicbooks.com