Life, 1886-12-16 · page 7 of 16
Life — December 16, 1886 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Sunday Morning" Cartoon Analysis This cartoon depicts a domestic scene where a young woman (Bessie) is being scolded by her father about missing church. The caption reads: "Bessie (accustomed to her father's habits): Mr. Little, you must go to church! Men doesn't go to church!" **The satire:** The humor relies on hypocrisy—the father demands Bessie attend church while he himself doesn't. Her cheeky response calls out his double standard, suggesting women are held to stricter moral/religious standards than men. **Social context:** This reflects late-19th/early-20th century gender norms where women faced greater social pressure to demonstrate respectability and piety, while men enjoyed more freedom from such expectations. The cartoon satirizes both paternal authority and gendered moral standards of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
: SUNDAY MORNING. Bessie (accustomed to her father’s habits): MR. LITTLE, YOU MUSN'T GO TO CHURCH! DOESN’T GO TO CHURCH! 383 A CASE OF CONSCIENCE. “cs IC’LAS, look heah, yo’ bin stealin’ Misser Burt's chickens agin? sholy yo’ is, or whar yo’ git dem fedders on yer? See heah, chile, is yo’ got de claws in yo’ pocket? Turn dem pockets inside out. Sho’ nuff, dar dey is. Roosters, one on’em. Whadger do wid ‘em, Nic'las? Whadger do wid dem pullets? You gin 'em to Pete Hen Cole fur a bone-han’le knife? Listen now. Kyar dat knife back to Pete Hen Cole an’ git dem fowls. Less ’n an hour yo'r farder ’ll come home hongry fo’ dinner, an’ dem oughter be bilin’ in de pot. Lan’ sakes! doan’ yo’ know a man's déadle dat 'ceives stolen prop’ty? Tell him dat, chile, tell him de plain fac’s. 'Twell frighten him out he boots. Run alarng now an’ | git dem fowls. Min’ yo’, fotch ‘em back, no matter if de nig- gah done shub 'm plum in de oven. Fotch back dem fowls, or yo’ conscience done twit yo’ hard larng as yo’ lib.” * * * HERE are no corner grog- geries on the road to prosperity. MEN AN IMPENDING EVIL. A SOCIAL reformer, who is as precise in his statement of facts as he is expert in his manipulation of figures, reports as the result of his investigation that the number of marriages is decreasing every year. ‘We have just cause for alarm if the report is true. Certainly thechoice of a wife is a subject full of piquant attraction to a romantic young man who has sown his wild oats and is saving his earnings, and longs for the comfort and slippered ease of a home of his own. The diffi- culties of courtship, however, are perplexing, arduous and real. In Knickerbocker times the knot was securely tied after a bluff proposal, and the young married couple were ready to start housekeeping with a barrel of potatoes, a blunderbuss and a family bible, Then life was idyllic and full of romance and song. But ¢empora mutantur, and they change for the worst, in most respects. No longer do the married pair flutter through life on the wings of romance. The chief bond of interest that unites young lovers in this mercenary age is a Govern- ment four per cent. The domestic tie is so elastic, divorces are so easily procurable, the feminine heart is so fickle withal, that eligible young men feel morbidly shy about exposing themselves to the matri- monial noose, and would as soon think of slipping a halter around the neck, The rule of woman in masculine attire and common-sense shoes is not a pleasant spectacle to contemplate. But if the girls of the repub- lic are not married off in some way, old maids of the most virulent type, in various stages of physical decline, will be clamoring for their rights with exceeding vigor and persistency, and who knows whether there will be enough green tea and scandal left to go around? Already the census table shows a deplorable increase in their number. They are organizing crusades against the most cherished institutions of man- kind, If for no other reasons than the above, human ingenuity should de- vise some method of facilitating proposals and tightening the love- knot, so there can be no escape. Cynics scoff at the marital relations. Idle flirtations are destroying the confidence of young people of ro- mantic temperament in one another. Sir George Campbell has en- deavored to prove that there is no such thing as love, that it is a psy- chological delusion. So long as ,these ideas prevail no easy-going youth will feel like sacrificing the frolic and fun of Bohemia for the martyrdom of the domestic circle. But legislation can rectify the evil. The law-makers should take the matter in hand. They can make courtship a civic duty which the individual owes to society, and enforce it by law. Were men who persist in remaining single disfranchised and divested of their property, and were women who refused to marry shut up in convents and denied access to the fashion magazines, the aggressive type of maiden lady who delights in agitating social and po- litical reforms would gradually disappear, and an ominous evil would be averted, an evil that all sensible people would seriously deplore. Harold Van Santvoord. comicbooks.com