Life, 1888-02-02 · page 7 of 16
Life — February 2, 1888 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 63 **"Another Industry Down"** (top): Mrs. Spriggins laments that Panama hats—traditionally worn by men—won't keep a man employed even if he had thirteen children. This satirizes economic anxieties about male employment and supports the implicit complaint that women's economic independence is destabilizing traditional family structures. **"A Darwinian Ditty"** (left): A poem mocking Massachusetts women, attributed to Idle Idyller. It ridicules educated Boston women for studying Darwin's evolution theory and encourages them toward domestic roles ("find a man to match you / In 1888!"). The satire targets women's intellectual ambitions as unnatural and unfeminine. **"A Leap Year Reverie"** (right): An elaborate cartoon showing gender-role confusion in an 1888 leap year, when tradition allowed women to propose to men—depicted here as chaotic and absurd.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
18d i PT i I ae ‘LIFE: 63 however, that because Homer sang of the great deeds of the Sullivans of old Grecian times, we should honor the Hon. J, L. Sullivan, The ancient Greeks did much that we are not called upon to do, and the Boston gentlemen who ventured on a defense of the Sullivan mania contending that the profession had ever been honorable in song and story, would be the first, doubtless, to castigate Briton’s Laureate should he turn his muse into a sporting editor for the nonce and write a‘ Knocksley Hall” or a May Song with the refrain ; Ob! wake and call me early, mother dear, For I'm to slug for the belt, mother, I'm to slug for the belt. Your's very truly, A DARWINIAN DITTY. To Priscilla of Boston. MASSACHUSETTS maiden! Tn Boston born and bred, Whose little brain is laden With language quick and dead, Whose face boasts only beauty That's born of intellect, Hear this, and be your duty To read and then reflect. Taboo your clubs of Browning And History a while, ‘They cultivate your frowning And ostracize your smile; Don’t give your precious leisure To Rome's ‘* Decline and Fall,” — Read that which gives you pleasure Or do not read at all. Be girl-like and be simple, Else it is to be feared Some future day your dimple Will hide beneath a beard ; For Mr. Darwin's told you Of man’s queer origin, And I may yet behold you With beard upon your chin. You'd better look about you— Consult the calendar ; Man fain would live without you ‘Than with you as you are: Put by your books pro tem and Swim where it’s not so deep,— The men, consider them, and Prepare yourself to leap! Next year against you chances Will be as ten to one ; For science take romances And read your Tennyson. Leap, and the gods will catch you Before it is too late, And find a man to match you In 1888! Idle Idyller. ANOTHER INDUSTRY DOWN. Pe E LESSEPS failed,” quoth ey Mrs. Spriggins, throwing down the morning paper. “Dear me! I'd a thought there'd a been money enough in Panama hats to keep a man a-goin’, even if he did have thirteen children. My, but that thirteen is an unlucky number!" A LEAP YEAR REVERIE. comicbooks.com