Life, 1891-12-03 · page 3 of 16
Life — December 3, 1891 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Proper Self-Respect" — Life Magazine Analysis This page features a poem by Thomas A. Janvier accompanying an illustration of the Gates of Heaven. The satire concerns a female angel's concern about her clothing in Paradise. Saint Peter informs the angel that her garments are "shocking" and "most indecent," while the angel worries she'll be "undrest" in Heaven. Peter then reassures her that in Heaven, one can't be "well drest" without being "damned." The joke satirizes Victorian-era anxieties about modesty and propriety—suggesting that rigid earthly standards of dress and morality are absurdly irrelevant in the afterlife. It mocks both excessive concern with appearance and the tension between religious piety and social convention that characterized the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
PROPER SELF-RESPECT. T the gates of Heaven an angel prest, An angel newly and properly made ; And she was, and she knew it, so very well drest That nothing in Heaven could make her afraid. Through the gates of Heaven she peered at the Blest, Asthrough Paradise streets they wandered and strayed, And gave audible thanks that she was well drest— For they were in garments most shockingly made. Every angel she saw—and to see them thus drest Brought a blush to the cheek of this @ 4a mode maid— Wore a radiant garment, cut, it must be confest, Like that in which mortals in sleep are arrayed. A positive pain wrung her sensitive breast At the sight of this garb, which decorum forbade— And the dread that she also must be thus undrest On her sensitive face cast a visible shade. Saint Peter advanced with a bow of the best (For the Saint liked the looks of the trim little maid), And he graciously said: ‘* When you're properly drest Your harp is all res s to be played.” Just one glance all disdainful she cast on the Blest In their garments of white, to Saint Peter salaamed, And replied: ‘If in Heaven one can't be well drest I'll, go—Somewhere Else, and be well drest and damned !° Thomas A, Janvier, comicbooks.com