Life, 1887-08-11 · page 7 of 16
Life — August 11, 1887 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "What Troubled Him" - Life Magazine, Page 77 The cartoon depicts two elegantly dressed people on horseback, with a ship visible in the background. The dialogue reveals a social satire: a man expresses relief at spotting a ship (the "Rome"), while a woman notes he seems nervous about something. He admits he's expecting "a new paiah of winding trousers" to arrive on the vessel. The joke satirizes male vanity and fashion anxiety in high society. Despite his composed aristocratic appearance, the gentleman is genuinely worried about receiving new fashionable trousers—suggesting that even wealthy, well-dressed men are secretly preoccupied with trivial sartorial concerns. This mocks the pretense of masculine indifference to fashion while highlighting the era's obsession with proper dress codes among the elite.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WHAT TROUBLED HIM. She; YOU SEEM GREATLY RELIEVED SINCE WE SIGHTED THE Xome, MR, DE Sapry. He: Ya-a3. 1 KNOW OF NO GWEATER STWAIN ON ONE'S NERVES THAN LOOKING FOR A STEAMAH THAT DOESN'T APPEAH. She: YOU HAVE SOME VERY DEAR FRIENDS ON BOARD, THEN? He: WELL, NO, NOT EXACTLY. TWOUSERS ON HER. BIRDS OF A FEATHER. LOOK in your eyes, and fancy Ourselves in a world apart ; On your lips sweet words are trembling, To your cheek the blushes start ; Yet I know that the glance, and the word and the blush, Have nothing to do with your heart. I press your hand and touch with my lips ‘The perfumed lace on your shoulder, Though I know that some fellow will do the same Ere the night is an hour older. Is he coming—or do I only imagine Your voice grows a trifle colder? Do you think I grieve that your heart is cold Though your tender glances glow? That I sorrow to see that glance bestowed On Harry or Jack? Why, no! I'm something that sort of a fellow myself, + And I rather prefer it so. ALE. S. Bur I'M EXPECTING A NEW PAIAH OF WIDING AN UNPARALLELED PARALLEL. CORRESPONDENT of the New York 7rrbune has discovered some scriptural lines which may comfort Mrs, Thurber. He writes: “In Ecclesiastes, chapter ii, verse 8, Solomon says, ‘I got me men singers and women singers, and musical instruments of all sorts; and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit." From this it is evident that Solomon came to grief trying to run a National Opera Company. He could manage three hundred wives and the Queen of Sheba, but the opera was too much for him. It is also evident from this that Mr. Lillian Russell isn’t the only Solomon that has dabbled in opera to his own perturbation of spirit. ER MAJESTY surprised her friends and disappointed her enemies last week by refusing a fine-tooth comb from the Hirsuterers of London. Investigation showed why. The comb had not been paid for. comicbooks.com