Life, 1891-05-28 · page 14 of 18
Life — May 28, 1891 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon ("Hedging"):** A wealthy woman (Miss Nouveau, suggesting new money) explains she snubs men preemptively to avoid being snubbed herself—a defensive social strategy among the nouveau riche anxious about their social standing. **Drama Section:** Critiques actor Richard Mansfield's portrayal of Don Juan. The reviewer argues that while the character should attract women, Mansfield's blond, impulsive version lacks genuine seductive power—though this may paradoxically make him more appealing to actual women, who don't fall for the stereotypical "masher" types that men imagine. **Bottom Cartoon ("That's Our Doctor"):** Dark humor about a incompetent doctor whose medicine killed a child (Jimmy). The parent sarcastically defends him ("ain't no good"), implying the doctor is actually terrible but perhaps the parent is denying responsibility or the diagnosis was hopeless anyway. All three items satirize pretense, social anxiety, and self-deception among Gilded Age Americans.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“HEDGING.” He: Wuy ro you sxup Miss Lineace? Miss Nouveau: TO Avoid THE MORTIFICATION OF HAVING HER SNUB JIE. MR. MANSFIELD’S LATEST. HE essential thing about a Don Juan is that he should be the sort of man that women fall in love with. Therefore only a woman could criticise Mr. Mansfield’s latest creation in its most essential person as Mr. Manstield’s Don Juan. He might amuse us while we were at our Kensington work or our darning, but he isn’t at all the sort of fellow we would pin our affections to or give up our lives for. But the kind of men that men don't fall in love with are just the kind of men that women do fall in love with, so this is probably the best recommendation there could be for the essential “* mashing lement in Mr. Manstie Don Juan. As Mr. Manstield pictures him he is a blond, impulsive, inconsequent, THAT'S OUR DOCTOR. “THAT Doctor ain't NO Goop.”* “AIN'T HE! WHY HE GAVE OUR JIMMY MEDICINE WHAT MADE HIM SO SICK HE DIED." comicbooks.com