Life, 1888-01-26 · page 7 of 16
Life — January 26, 1888 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis **Top Cartoon ("Why Not Use Our Titles?"):** This satirizes social pretension among the upper classes. Mrs. Robinson addresses "Mrs. Doctor Smith" by her husband's professional title rather than using her own name—a common practice that reduced women to their husbands' identities. Mrs. Smith's response about traveling abroad with "Mr. Doctor Smith" and visiting "Mrs. Merchant Tailor Jones" highlights the absurdity: women are being referred to only through male relations' occupations. The satire critiques how women's social status derived entirely from men, lacking independent identity or recognition. **Bottom Poem ("The Terrible Surplus"):** This addresses economic overproduction during an era of apparent national wealth. Despite abundant resources (grain, oil, minerals), people suffered poverty. A patient refuses medical treatment, saying he cannot afford the "cure for a Surplus"—satirizing how abundance paradoxically coexisted with widespread hardship and economic inequality.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WHY NOT USE OUR TITLES? Mrs. Robinson: WHY, MY DEAR Mrs. Doctor SMitH, I AM SO GLAD TO SEE YOU! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL THESE MONTHS ? Mrs. Smith: THANK you, Mrs, RETIRED GROCER ROBINSON. MY DEAR OLD FRIEND MRS, MERCHANT TAILOR JONES. THE TERRIBLE SURPLUS. BUNDANCE clutched, with ruthless hand, The nation’s threat like an iron band ; Silver rivers with golden sand Inundated the hapless land In the year of the Terrible Surplus. Granaries groaned with weight of grain, Flocks and herds covered hill and plain ; Oil wells flowed, and every vein Of mines and minerals swelled the gain In the year of the Terrible Surplus. Other peoples, more blest than we, Joyed in their happy bankruptcy ; Foreign paupers, whose trade was ‘‘ free,” Pitied our plethoric misery, In the year of the Terrible Surplus. I HAVE BEEN TRAVELING ABROAD WITH Mr, DocrorR SMITH AND How Is YOUR HUSBAND ? Wise physicians of solemn mien, Quack and regular, fat and lean ; Independent and straight machine, Gathered around with lancets keen To reduce the Terrible Surplus. But the patient listened and shook his head, And wouldn't be stripped and put to bed, And starved and leeched and cupped and bled ; “For,” says he, ‘* you fellows that ain’t half fed Don't know the cure for a Surplus.” “It’s exercise that a man should try When his blood is slow and his skin is dry ; I'll mend my fences, and build ‘em high— The neighbors’ critters will find out why, If I ketch ’em around my Surplus.” James Jeffrey Roche.