Life, 1892-02-25 · page 8 of 16
Life — February 25, 1892 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents a romantic narrative rather than political satire. The story depicts a "Young Man from the West" declaring his love to a woman named Priggie, despite her concerns about their differing social backgrounds—she mentions her mother was "an Offizinoubha" and warns of blood relations to various aristocratic families ("Pursyprouds," "Hexivities," "Ha-Ha-bloos," etc.). The central illustration shows the couple in an emotional confrontation on a cliff. The narrative culminates tragically when Priggie jumps to her death rather than accept his love, after which the Young Man also steps over the cliff edge. The page appears to be satirizing romantic melodrama and class-consciousness anxieties of the era, mocking both Priggie's pretentious concern with bloodlines and the overwrought emotional intensity of the lovers' declarations.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
118 Young Man from the West, “eyes that fill the soul with Heaven and Hell at once; her eyes are to the eyes of other women as diamonds are to dirt. Her hair is a golden dream; her voice—her voice 1 have never heard, but her figure is ravishment to the senses, a bewildering dream of grace. Have you seen her?” “No, | have not seen her. but it was quite another. 1 passed a girl a moment ago, She had a pinched-up, snobby face: was distinctly uninteresting, and without a_ particle of style. There she is now, standing on the cliff.” The Young Man from the West, who had not listened to the last few words, exclaimed “Ah! ‘tis she!" and hurried in that direction, himself at her feet he cried : “Pardon me, oh, beautiful angel; but | love you more than all in life. Throwing THE YOUNG MAN PROM THE WKST DECLARES HIS LOVE. “Stop, you unconventional horror,” said Priggie ina dry, yulated voice. Priggie’s words were always carefully ted. “Do you realize your presumption ? aware that you address a Tchilli-Znubbha ? that my mother was an Offulznobb ?” Are you Do you forget “Oh, 1 don’t mind that!" he cried, “if 1 may only love you!" “Don't mind that!" whispered Priggie, as she tottered backward, with her hand to her forehead. Heaven! can such ignorance obtain!” this couplet : * Gracious ‘Then she repeated O Allah, who abidest in the Hub of the Universe ! Pardon the unpardonable ignorance of this kneeling thing. ‘Tho’ immeasurably beneath us in the scale of Nature, Smite him not. His misfortune, not his fault, His ignorance of holy things is Then, gazing pityingly upon him, she said * LIFE: PRIGGIE PAINTS, “Young man, know you not that the blood of the Pursy- prouds and the Hevvistiles, runs in my veins; that Iam con- nected by marriage with the Pompusprigs, the Ha-Ha-Bloos, the Ho-Ho-Bloods, and with all the first families of the Hub?” The young man answered, “These things scare me not. 1 love you for what you are. No taint of blood can turn aside my love!" Priggie looked upon him with dilated eyes, then gasped and swooned away. Before he could catch her she fell to the earth. He raised her head gently in his arms, and finding her lips so near his own he put a burning kiss upon them. Priggie jumped as though a bee had stung her. Springing to her feet she drew her hand across her mouth as if to cast away the profanation ; then muttered with a look of horror: What death too sudden? What grave too deep?" Then, in a lower tone, “The worst of it is we have been observed.” Readjusting her hat and hair, she cast a scornful look upon the Young Man from the West, walked stiffly to the edge of the cliff, and stepped over the edge. The waves closed above her and that was the last of Priggie. The same sea washed the edges of the Hub, and therefore knew it was more comme of faut ro retain the body than to cast it ashore and create a scene. And ever since that day the waters of this north shore have been colder than, at other places along the Ameri- can coast. “Held in his arms, and kissed, by a stranger! It is of no importance what became of the Young Man from the West. JA Mit comicbooks.com