Life, 1891-04-09 · page 7 of 14
Life — April 9, 1891 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This page from *Life* magazine (page 223) contains a satirical cartoon about workplace misconduct. The dialogue reads: **She:** "You never hear of women cashiers embezzling or running off with their employer's money." **He:** "Not often; but when it does happen they take the employer, too." The joke plays on gender stereotypes of the era. The woman claims female cashiers are more trustworthy than male ones, implying moral superiority. The man's retort subverts this by suggesting that when women *do* commit theft, they steal something more valuable than money—the employer himself (implying romantic/sexual entanglement or elopement). It's satirizing both workplace assumptions about women's honesty and contemporary attitudes toward romance and social propriety. The illustration shows a domestic interior scene with two figures in conversation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SAU YoU NEVER HEAR OF WOMEN CASHIERS EMBEZZLING OR RUNNING OFF WITH THEIR EMPLOYER'S MONEY. NoT OFTEN; BUT WHEN IT DOES HAPPEN THEY TAKE THE EMPLOYER, TOO. author is playing with your feelings—for all that happens is so inevitable. This does not imply that the sketches are uniformly suc- cessful; for they may be colorless like “ Davit Lunan’s Polit- ical Reminiscences,” or, perhaps, too farcical, like the “ Auld Lichts in Arms.” But at their worst the charms of the homely style, with its Gaelic idioms, giving it both strength and melody, will carry the reader through them with delight. Droch. NEW BOOKS. THE FARMERS’ ALLIANCE. What it aims to accomplish. By H.R. Chamberlain. New York: The Minerva Publishing Company. The Witch of Endor and Other Poems. By Francis S. Saltus. Buf. falo: Charles Wells Moulton, Shadows and Ideals, Poems by Francis S. Saltus. Buffalo: Charles Wells Moulton A Secret Mission, New York: Harper and Brothers. Chesterfield's Letters to His Son. Two volumes, Edited by the Earl of Carnarvon. New York and London: G, P. Putnam's Sons. Woman's Work in America, Edited by Annie Nathan Mayer, with an introduction by Julia Ward Howe. New York: Henry Holt and Com- pany. The Death Penalty, By Andrew J. Palm, New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Congressman John Carthy. New York: The Sisters’ and His Wife's Satisfaction. By Emma W. Mac- G. W. Dillingham. rracedy, with Other Poems. By Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Boston and New York: Houghton, Miffin and Company. Tales from Shakespeare's Tracedict. By Charles and Mary Lamb. Edited, with notes, by William J. Rolfe, Litt. D. New York: Harperand Brothers. Campmates. A Story of the Plains. Harper and Brothers. Oberammergan, 190. By William Allen Butler. and Brothers. By Kirk Munroe. New York: New York: Harper comicbooks.com