Life — September 15, 1887 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Bad Luck" - Life Magazine, September 15, 1887 This cartoon satirizes an unmarried man's romantic failures. The dialogue presents a domestic scene where a woman (Sally) asks Mr. W. why he won't marry. His response—"I am so ugly no one will have me"—prompts Sally's cutting reply: "Wouldn't some one as ugly as you are have you?" The humor relies on the era's conventional mockery of physical appearance and romantic prospects. The cartoon suggests that even someone as unattractive as Mr. W. should be able to find a similarly plain partner, yet apparently cannot. It's gentle social satire about bachelorhood and the period's assumptions about marriage being achievable for anyone willing to lower standards sufficiently. The artist is credited as Albert E. Sterner.