Life, 1886-02-18 · page 7 of 16
Life — February 18, 1886 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of "A Muffled Dart" Cartoon This cartoon satirizes courtship propriety in the Victorian/Edwardian era. Two well-dressed women encounter a man on a winter path with a dog. The caption presents their exchange: one woman remarks her "fingers are almost frozen," the other asks "Doesn't your muff keep them warm?" He replies "Oh, he's so good." The humor relies on double meaning: "muff" refers both to the cylindrical fur hand-warmer women wore and to the dog (a spaniel or similar breed). His innocent response about the dog's warmth creates an awkward misunderstanding, playing on era-typical prudishness about physical contact between unmarried people. The satire gently mocks both rigid social conventions and the suggestiveness lurking beneath polite conversation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
TO THE LAUGHING PHILOSOPHER. “cc IFE’S a joke,” you, laughing, said. I'll not deny the maxim true, But, have n’t you a haunting dread That, possibly, the joke 's on you ? C.M. T. LIFE’S SPORTING VOCABULARY. HUNTING. A Close Scent—The miser’s mite. Game Always in Season—Poker. A Good Setter—The champion compositor. A Heavy Charge—Delmonico’s bill. | A Poor Rifle —Picking a pauper’s pocket. FISHING, The Prize Sturgeon—London’s great | preacher. The Fishing Banks—A Marine institution. A Poor Haul—Tammany. Life on the Ocean Wave—Only ten cents. | Geo. Fleming. HIS winter has been so severe in Maine , that even many of the partridges have | been seen in firs. “cc AS there ever a man named ‘Damn,’ mother ?” said a bright little fellow, showing her a poem with this headtine: To Se gd Ree general complaint about the self- satisfied bachelor is, that he is too much “a man after his own heart,” instead of | some woman's. ty ~ 7 A MUFFLED DART. She (meeting her fiancé : MY FINGERS ARE ALMOST FROZEN. He (who is diffident): Ske: OH, HE'S NO Goop, ES N'T YOUR MUFF KEEP THEM WARM? past, and if we may be permitted to add one more sugges- tion, we propose that the appropriations to this end should include sufficient funds to purchase likewise the seventeen suits that President Arthur wore on Mr. Cleveland’s inau- guration day ; the hat that Mr. Evarts wore during his four years of service as Secretary of State; the patches still re- maining from Mr. Hayes’s trousers, if he will part with them, and the frilled shirts in which ex-Attorney-General Brewster retired from office. J. K. Bangs. PHILOSOPHY. AGGS : “ Where were we last night, old boy?” Turner (gulping a cocktail) : “ Give it up. All I know is we did n't go to bed till we bought the morning papers.” Baggs: “Any money. left?” Turner: “ Money all gone.” Baggs (reflectively): ‘Never mind. If our money wasn't all gone how would we snow we'd had a good time?" HLV.S. TIME FOR ALL THINGS. OURT OFFICER (whispering in Magistrate’s ear): A couple outside want you to join them. Magistrate: Sh! Tell ‘em I Il be around the corner in five minutes. Court officer: It’s a young couple, sir, as wants to get married. Magistrate: Oh! Tellem they ‘ll have to wait until the court is adjourned. 73 HO shall decide when doctors disagree?” Alas! sometimes the undertaker. CORRESPONDENT says the Emperor of Brazil trav- els with ‘a six in hand.” In this progressive city it is carried in the hip pocket. A NEW THING IN FLANNELS—A baby born in ‘86. A LETTER OF INTRODUCTION—I. comicbooks.com