Life, 1890-09-04 · page 1 of 16
Life — September 4, 1890 — page 1: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Woman's Way" - Life Magazine, September 4, 1890 This cartoon satirizes a woman who murdered her husband through relentless nagging and emotional abuse ("worried the life out of her husband and killed him by inches"). The dark humor suggests that while she escaped legal justice for his death, social punishment follows: she must now visit his grave regularly and endure public scorn ("sobs on his grave till you can hear her over the fence"). The cartoon appears to mock both the woman's cruelty and the gossip-driven social consequences she faces. It reflects late-Victorian anxieties about female power within marriage and the period's preoccupation with women's moral failings. The gentleman and fashionable woman observing represent proper society judging her transgression.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
VOLUME XVI. NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 4, 1890. NUMBER 401. Entered at the New York Post Office as Second-Class Mail Matter. Copyright, 1890, by Mrrewmit & Miter, vat prrhicanes SVM. C Qusldoin- WOMAN’S WAY. She: ISN'T THAT THE WOMAN WHO WORRIED THE LIFE OUT OF HER HUSBAND AND KILLED HIM BY INCHES ? He: YES, AND NOW SHE GOES AND SORS ON HIS GRAVE TILL YOU CAN HEAR HER OVER THE FENCE, comicbooks.com