Life — December 19, 1889 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Foresighted Maiden" This cartoon satirizes a young woman's pragmatic—if darkly humorous—approach to marriage and finances. The woman, depicted as the central figure in formal evening dress, is surrounded by suitors in tuxedos at what appears to be a social gathering. The caption reveals her calculation: a suitor urgently proposes managing her finances on $300 annually, but she responds that she'd "sooner be comfortably dead"—implying the sum is inadequate for her desired lifestyle. The satire targets both the woman's materialism and the era's economic realities: the cartoon mocks her mercenary marriage prospects while also suggesting that $300 yearly was genuinely insufficient for comfortable living, particularly for a woman dependent on a husband's income.