Life, 1889-07-18 · page 3 of 16
Life — July 18, 1889 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Wail of the Rejected" - Life Magazine Analysis This page satirizes unmarried women's frustrations through poetry and humor. "The Wail of the Rejected" is a poem from a woman's perspective lamenting her single status—she's nearly thirty, unpretty, and has traveled widely but remains unmarried despite her efforts. The cartoon "A Clin-Her" depicts an angry, rejected woman in an exaggerated pose, likely mocking women who pursued romantic relationships unsuccessfully. The separate sketch "Consolation" shows a young girl crying over her mother's death, providing darkly humorous contrast. The page reflects late Victorian/Edwardian anxieties about matrimony—women's limited options and the social shame of remaining unmarried. The humor depends on period attitudes treating single women as objects of pity or ridicule rather than autonomous individuals.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Pe) VOLUME XIV. : THE WAIL OF THE REJECTED. DEAR! I'm nearly thirty, And years fly by so fast That each successive birthday Comes close upon the last, While unappreciated > My charms will soon lie low Beneath a spinster gravestone— I've never had a beau! RD Although I'm not a beauty, My eyes are very fair And several carping critics Have raved about my hair. Yet if 1 do but venture To any ball or rout, My getting left is certain— l= I'm never taken out. I I've wandered from Bar Harbor To Newport and the pier; With Paris frocks and bonnets Becoming, chic and dear. But, though the women praise me A CLINCHER. In whispers each to each, No man has ever asked me Outraged Evin: Gixitemtx, | WUD LOIKE TO ASHK THDE AMERIKINS WAN THING: WHO DOOG THE CANALS LV THE COON- To stroll upon the beach. TRY, BUT furriners ? WHO BUILT THE RAILRUDS UV THE COON- { TRY, BUT /urriners? WHO WORRUKS THE MOINES UV THE Ah, lassies who are followed COONTRY, RUT /urriners? \WilO DOES THE VOTIX’ FUR THE By an adoring train, COONTRY, BUT furriners? AND who the divil dishcoovered the ‘And find in every corner coontry, but FURRINERS ? An unsuspected swain, The world has griefs and sorrows Of which you little know ! Just think of me—the only girl Who never had a beau! A. EW. M*:: PITTIE (strolling on the beach): So you are an orphan, little boy? LITTLE Boy (turning up stones with his toes after shedder crabs for bait): Yessum; pa died last week. Mrs. Pirtie: What did he die of? LitTLe Boy (putting a crab in his pocket): Ammonia. Mrs. PiTTiE: You mean pneumonia, LitTLe Boy: No, I don’t; | mean am-monia, Guess I know; I seed him drink it. HE man from Oshkosh can this year go on an actual ‘European “tower "— Eiffel's. AN OLD SaLT—Attic. ‘ CONSOLATION. “WHAT'S THE MATTER, LITTLE GIRL?" “(TM CRYING BECAUSE MY MASIMA HAS JUST GONE TO HEAV: “OH, BUT P’R'APS SHE WASs'T.” HAT are the wild waves saying? They are probably lying about their circulation. comicbooks.com