Life, 1887-03-10 · page 12 of 18
Life — March 10, 1887 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Page 140: Victorian-Era Social Satire This page collects short humor pieces mocking Victorian social conventions and hypocrisy. **"Extremely Comforting"** satirizes morbid social greeting rituals—a man encounters an acquaintance and immediately expresses shock he's still alive, dwelling on disease and death. **"A Society Debt"** jokes about a young man forced to wear last season's clothing due to financial embarrassment. **The kitchen scene** features an Irish servant ("Bridget") explaining to her mistress why she entertained a man in the kitchen: someone was already in the parlor—suggesting servants mimic their employers' romantic indiscretions. **"No Trouble"** presents dark gallows humor: a doctor dismisses a boy's injuries as fatal anyway. **The moral courage sequence** shows a man smoking a cheap pipe in public despite social disapproval, then anxiously hoping upper-class women didn't notice—exposing the contradiction between claimed principles and actual behavior. Minor items mock Chinese immigration, women's rights, and celebrity nonsense. Throughout, the satire targets Victorian pretense and class anxieties.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
140 EXTREMELY COMFORTING. toh old boy; out again, eh! Well, I must say I never ex- pected to see you again. Looking every day for your death in the papers. What's been the matter? Bright's disease? Eh! very deceptive thing. Can't tell, though. People do some- times get well. Very seldom, though. Generally die just as they think they're convalescent. You look very bad. Good-bye !” A SOCIETY PEBT. Y indulging a penchant to bebt, A “‘hossy" young man got in debt. He owed such a sumb, He was forced to succumb— He is wearing his summer suit yebt ! Mistress: BRIDGET, I DON'T THINK IT 1S PROPER FOR YOU TO ENTERTAIN MEN IN THE KITCHEN, | Bridget: Yez BE ROIGHT, MUM, BUT THERE WAS SOMEONE IN THE PARLOR ALREADY. Why should I yield to the dictates of a foolish popular prejudice in smoking cigars in the street, which I cannot afford, when I prefer a pipe. I will have moral courage ! NO TROUBLE. “ OCTOR, I hear that you have a very bad case to- day.” “What one is that?" asked the doctor. “ That boy that was kicked in the stomach by a mule.” “Oh! no trouble about that. It killed him right off!” * . . HE average woman is con- sidered too delicate to shoul- der a musket, but nobody questions her right to bare arms. I have moral courage, always thought I Every man should have moral courage. noble attribute. Here comes Miss Van Way- up and her mother. Moral courage is a good thing in its had. It isa No, they did not; but they never quite under- stood it all. Hope they did not see me smoking that confounded pipe. Don’t think they did. UFFOCATING Younc Lapy IN THEATRE: I wouldn't come here again to hear—the Angel Gabriel! HE: Wouldn't you? » He'll make a very good play—the last trump. . . . HE Chinese of California are the queue-cumberers of the | soil. ° . . | 0, John L. Sullivan never had | any connection with . the | Boston Belting Company. comicbooks.com