Life, 1886-05-13 · page 1 of 16
Life — May 13, 1886 — page 1: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Collegiate" - Life Magazine, May 13, 1886 This cartoon satirizes college dating customs of the 1880s. The scene shows a young woman (Miss Budd) being confronted by a male student about her engagement to another classmate, Charlie Howard. The humor lies in the student's casual admission that he's asking not out of genuine concern, but to gather gossip about rivals and "get all the grinds on the fellows I can"—treating romantic entanglements as social fodder for campus gossip. The cartoon mocks the superficial social dynamics of collegiate life, where students treat engagement announcements as entertainment rather than sincere relationship matters. The pointed question reveals the self-interested, competitive nature of campus social hierarchies during this period.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
| yYOLUME VII. NEW: YORK, MAY 13, 1886. Entered at New York Post Office as Second-Class Mall Matter. Copyright, 1886, NUMBER 176. Grrwort itty saanrewe.: aes ars ters af COLLEGIATE. Talented Senior: PAaRDON ME, Miss BUDD, IS IT TRUE THAT YOU ARE ENGAGED TO MY CLASSMATE CHARLEY HOWARD? Miss B.: THAT'S RATHER A POINTED QUESTION. 7. Siz ‘Excuse MY ASKING, BUT I AM HISTORIAN FOR OUR CLASS, AND AM OETTING ALL THE GRINDS ON THE FELLOWS I CaN, comicbooks.com