Life, 1887-08-18 · page 7 of 16
Life — August 18, 1887 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "His Dinner Hour" - Life Magazine Cartoon Analysis This cartoon satirizes wealthy British social customs, specifically the rigid dinner schedules of the upper classes. The caption presents a dialogue where a newly married man invites an acquaintance to dinner, but the response reveals the absurdity of aristocratic dining times: dinner occurs at various hours—sometimes 6 or 7 p.m., or even "half-past seven," and sometimes "not till half-past eight." The joke targets the pretentiousness of the British elite, who maintain such strict, inflexible dinner protocols that even inviting someone becomes complicated by scheduling conventions. The boat scene suggests leisure-class activities, emphasizing that these concerns occupy the wealthy's daily lives. The satire mocks both the formality and the apparent randomness of upper-class dining customs.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HIS DINNER HOUR. HN, (newly married): WELL, GOOD-BYE, OLD MAN, COME UP SOME NIGHT AND TAKE DINNER WITH Us, C. B.: THanks, | witt, Wat our DO You HAVE IT? HN, (meditatively): OW, SOMETIMES AT SIX, AND sometimes AT SEVEN, AND THEN AGAIN AT Aal/-past seven, AND, BY JOVE, SOMETIMES NOT TILL Aal/-past eight. NOODLEPORT NOTES. AUGUST 10:—Life at Noodleport this season is a8 gay and frivo- lous as ever, The Queen's Jubilee took away a large number of the.leading families, but the medium ten seem to have enjoyed them- selves the better for it. It has been possible this year for a youth of moderate income to appear on the streets with every one of the but- tons on his vest buttoned without being socially ostracized, while the ladies have found it has done them no harm to wear the same dress on two different occasions. Talk has been about as small as usual, although the absence of the Jubilee circle has done much to elevate the subject-matter. Owing to the large number of recent divorces in Noodleport circles the list of eligible men and women has been considerably augmented. Several engagements in the divorce set it is expected will shortly be a nounced, and it will hardly be surprising if two gentlemen, who are fast friends, should shortly be in practically the same position as they would be if they had swapped wives, just as they have hitherto swapped horses, dogs, and other live-stock. Swellevue Avenue is crowded daily with a most brilliant concourse of equipages, some of which, I imagine, are paid for. A new fashion which has been adopted by the frequenters of the drive and possibly due to the recent behavior of the Prince and Princess of Wales, is that of husbands and wives driving together. It was a difficult matter to get the best Noodleporters to adopt the custom, and it was not until eye- witnesses of recent London events had confirmed the report that the heir apparent and his Princess had been seen in the same vehicle to- gether, that the existing barriers of prejudice were broken down, ‘The Casino continues to thrive, and the prophecies of certain chronic grumblers that the liquor laws of Rhode Island would ruin the enterprise have proven groundless. Whether this failure in the prophetic line is due to the Casino's reaping the reward of virtue, or to the adoption of a code by which a harmless sounding order may bring forth an insidious beverage or not, I prefer not to say. I have no grudge against the Casino and do not wish anything I may say to bring it into a conflict with the authorities, I have no objection to saying thus publicly, however, that the milk at this celebrated institu- tion is only second to water in its palatability, and that the gentleman who presides over the destinies of the bar can put together the best H20 cobbler I have tasted in many a long day. There is a growing tendency to a classification of society here. There are three estates, just as in England. The Royal families are those whose wealth—their own or borrowed, it makes na difference so long as the income is there—is over five millions. The second estate consists of those whose fortunes range from one million to five million, and the third are those who can count on any sum between half a million and a million. Those who have less than the lowest sum do not exist, in a social sense. This serves to make Noodleport a delectable spot. It assorts the populace, and keeps each individual in his or her proper place. There is a continual war between the noble and ignoble, and if one party can do anything to put the other party in a ridiculous light it is sure to be done, One of the Impecunes to whom the columns of the newspaper are open, published a paragraph to the effect that the Prince of Wales attended the Goodwood Races wearing a brown derby hat crushed in inthe centre. The next afternoon all the Royalist youth appeared on the cliff with their hats caved in, The following morning the para- graph was contradicted and a cablegram inserted saying that the caved in condition of the hat was due to causes over which the Prince had no control, viz.: a brick had dropped on it. So it goes; first one is up, then the other. Every once in a while arash comes and a star in the Royalist firmament is extinguished, or an Impecune comes in contact with kerosene and lights the Royalist heavens to the dimming of their brightest ornaments. In justice to both classes I will say that recruits from either are gladly received by the other, for there is nothing that the Royalists worship more than wealth, and the rich deprived of their competence are no longer objects of dislike to the Impecunes. Cholmondeley Harcourt, a comicbooks.com