Life, 1890-01-09 · page 10 of 18
Life — January 9, 1890 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of "The Fifth-Floor Lodger and His Elevator" This is a visual comic strip showing a man using an elevator shaft as a pulley system to lower a basket—apparently a humorous solution to avoiding stairs. The three panels show the elevator's operation at different floor levels. Below, "A Society Mystery" depicts upper-class women gossiping about a mysterious man (Will Toward) who's become socially prominent by paying attention to an unfashionable woman (Miss Verplaine). The satire mocks society's superficiality: women are puzzled why he'd court her unless there's hidden wealth or scandal, unable to imagine genuine kindness as motivation. It critiques the materialistic and status-obsessed nature of high society, where romantic interest must have mercenary or sensational explanations.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
24 ‘LIFE: THE FIFTH-FLOOR LODGER AND HIS ELEVATOR. A LESSON IN SUBTRACTION, THE iWAY OF THE WORLD. LIND Love had strayed and asked of me his way, Of me, a bachelor, two-score and gray. “Sweet youth,” said I with calculating art, “This is thy way,” and pressed him to my heart. A SOCIETY MYSTERY. ScENE: A Ballroom. ISS HATEMALL: What caz it mean? Miss ALWayso: Dreadful, isn’t it? MapDaM HaATEMALL: Who is it my dear? I cannot use my lorgnettes effectively in this crowd. Miss HATEMALL: Why, that horrid Miss Veriplaine— just surrounded by a crowd of men. All of them are crowding around her. There must be something mysterious about it. Possibly a secret fortune. It's dreadful ! Miss ALWAysoO: Of course it is, and she the plainest and dowdiest-dressed girl in the room. If she had a mint of money she couldn't look well. A man would have to marry her with his eyes shut. Miss HEviwaTE: There’s Will Toward crowding up. Regie Rattlebrain is leaning over her and making himself as delightful as he knows how. MADAM THOUGHTLESSE: It was only a week ago that he was making himself so attentive to my Grace. I shall remember it. Miss HATEMALL: There goes Harry Hardup— and, bless me, Ned Neversmile, the immaculate. How can he make such a spectacle of himself! Miss PEACHBLOW: Why, the rest of us might just as well go home. She has become a perfect queen. Miss ALWayso: Really I'm not very old— Cuorus (sympathetically): Of course not. Miss ALWayso (severely): I was intending to say that although my experience has been very limited, only having been abroad twice, and never since I came out, this goes far beyond me. It has almost destroyed my confidence in my own eyes. Miss HATEMALL: Ah! here comes Will Toward. He'll tell us what it means. He hasn't brains enough to know that we're pumping him. Good evening, Mr. Toward (sweetly). Do tell us why all the men in the room are crowding around Miss Veriplaine. WiLL Towarb: Oh! Ab! Of course! Very good! She's sitting by the punch bowl, you know. Awfully jolly punch, Strong! Oh, awfully strong, don’t you know. CHorus: Oh! That's it? I thought it was another piece of her finessing, Isn't she perfectly dreadful? Tom Hall, comicbooks.com