Life, 1887-08-25 · page 5 of 16
Life — August 25, 1887 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 103 The top cartoon "She Was a Forward Miss" satirizes changing social conventions around courtship and propriety. Three scandalized friends gossip about a woman's inappropriate behavior: she shows her teeth when smiling (considered immodest), has beautiful teeth (drawing male attention), and worst—displays them openly (suggesting boldness or impropriety). The joke targets Victorian-era attitudes about feminine modesty. A woman visibly smiling with exposed teeth was considered "forward" or sexually aggressive by contemporary standards. Below, "An August Appeal" is a romantic poem signed "F.D.S." addressed to someone absent at Saratoga Springs (a fashionable resort). It expresses longing and melancholy during summer separation. The page reflects early-1900s social attitudes about gender presentation and romantic sentimentality.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SHE WAS A FORWARD MISS. Envious Friend: | DON'T SEE WHAT ARTHUR IS GOING TO MARRY HER FOR! Charitable Friend: SHE 18 NOT SO UGLY: SHE HAS BEAUTIFUL TEETH. Envious Friend: BUT SUCH AN immodest WAY OF SHOWING THEM! AN AUGUST APPEAL. O-DAY the sky is not so blue, The green upon the bending grass Is not so deep as when with you I watched the hours of summer pass: The birds sing on, but not the same Sweet song floats down the amber air— They call and carol forth your name And wake the echoes everywhere. And.1, who listen to the birds, Like them, a stranger in this clime, Sing on and group the lonely words In sweet companionship of rhyme, Wherein as in a mirror clear Will fancy for a moment cheat My eyes, and make a face appear With features like your own, my Sweet ! Ah, if the face in dreams like this Might yield such smiles as I have seen Play round the lips to frame a kiss— How blue the sky,—the grass, how green! Love, if you knew your potent powers, How all the weather's jumped the track, I think you'd shorten some the hours That must elapse ere you come back. Humidity of air and eyes, A deep depression of the mind— Your absence all of this implies : For me no cloud is silver-lined. Haste, sweetheart, to a hermit bard, And bring the balm for which he sings ; A rhyme to Love is very hard With you at Saratoga Springs. comicbooks.com