Life, 1888-12-13 · page 1 of 14
Life — December 13, 1888 — page 1: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "A Proper Point of View" (Life Magazine, December 13, 1888) This cartoon satirizes wealthy mothers' status anxieties about their daughters' transportation. The dialogue shows a mother (Mrs. R. Gay) explaining to another woman (Mamma) that girls at their school have their own private carriages sent to collect them. When asked how she can identify which carriage belongs to her daughter, she replies it has its own "trade-mark on the door." The humor targets upper-class competitiveness and conspicuous consumption—the absurdity of mothers essentially branding their carriages like commercial products to display family status. By comparing a family coach to commercial merchandise, the cartoonist mocks how wealthy New Yorkers turned even transportation into status symbols requiring distinctive identification marks.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
VOLUME XII. NEW YORK, DECEMBER 13; 1888. Entered at the New York Post Office as Second-Class Mail Matter Copyright, 1888, by Mrrcwats & Miiier. preicanys ge Svm. A PROPER POINT OF VIEW. Madge: MAMA, SOME OF THE GIRLS AT OUR SCHOOL HAVE THEIR ot CARRIAGES SENT TO BRING THEM HOME, Mrs. R. (idly): How po you KNow, DEAR? Madge: OW, BECAUSE IT HAS THEIR OWN TRADE-MARK ON THE DOOR. comicbooks.com