Life, 1892-03-10 · page 5 of 14
Life — March 10, 1892 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 147: Life Magazine - Satirical Sketches This page contains two unrelated satirical pieces: **"Knight-Errantry"** (left): A poem with accompanying sketch mocking chivalrous behavior. It depicts a man helping a woman whose shoe came loose, establishing an ironic contrast between outdated romantic ideals and modern reality. **"Male Help Wanted"** (right): An illustrated scene showing a woman chasing or attacking a man, accompanying a dialogue between characters named Penelope and Pauline. The satire appears to mock courtship conventions and women's agency—specifically, the women discuss managing their male suitors through deception (alternating engagement calls, sending flowers/candy) and strategic manipulation. The overall theme ridicules both outdated chivalry and the emerging "modern woman" who actively controls romantic relationships through cunning rather than passivity.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
KNIGHT-ERRANTRY. [¥ 4 auaint corner where Old houses front the square, She stood in deep despair, Holding her skirt. Gazing with rueful eye, At one small Oxford-tie, Whose shoe-string, gone awry, Dragged in the dirt. MALE HELP WANTED. Could she stoop, laced so tight ? PENELOPE: Nor |. And yet Her gloves were new and light ; 1 saw her helpless plight, And tied her shoe, it would be foolish for us to give him up. He was lots of fun. PAULINE (stghing): True. She thanked me, flushed with shame, How handsome he used to look Tripped back the way she came ;— when he would look down into “Who was she: and her name ? my eyes and swear that | wa Tnever knew! the only woman in the whole Harry Romaine. wide world he ever loved. PENELOPE: Yes, he was handsome when he did that. Pauline we must punish him. b But how can we ? SLOPE (with an air of confident superiority): Vil manage that. You don’t suppose that I've managed mamma and papa all my life for nothing, do you ? Well, how shall we do it? We will both continue to be engaged to him. We will inform cach other when he is expec- ted to call. On days when he has an engagement to call on you | will send him a note asking him to call on me. He can’t call on both and of course he will have to lie to the other, When a man lies to a girl he eases his conscience by sending her either flowers or candy, One of us will get the call the other will get the candy, When he has an engage- ment to call on me you will do the same thing. Pauline, I see visions of unlimited flowers and candy this winter. What do you think about it? PAULINE: Pen, I think that you are the dearest, sweetest, most lovable girl in all New York. PE ope: Yes, 1 think | am—but | do hope he gets a good salary. AN ALLIANCE IN LOVES. peuex =: So we are both engaged to him ? PENELOPE: Apparently. I know that I am. PAULINE: And I know that | am, Why, our rings are just alike. PENELOPE: He must buy them by the dozen. Why, even the dates on them are the same. That's true. He proposed to me just before the german began. PAULINE: And to me just after. What a wretch! PENELOPE: It's too bad. He was the only man I was en- gaged to last summer that I cared to invite to call on our re- turn to town. PAULINE: He used to say terribly disagreeable things about you. JO form of error is more nauseating than that which PENELOPE: They were nothing to the things he used to 1 lauds itself as exclusive truth. say about you. I hope, though, that this won't make us friends = to any less degree. H My wife never got the better of me but once. PAULINE: By no means. 1 wouldn't have him now if he SH Lucky man—when was that ? were free. Hr: (sighing): When she married me. comicbooks.com