Life — April 28, 1892 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Deficiency" (Life Magazine, April 28, 1892) This cartoon satirizes a couple's marital discord. A well-dressed man and an elegantly-gowned woman stand apart, their body language suggesting distance or tension. The caption reads: **He:** "Sorry to have kept you waiting, but my watch was wrong. I shall never have faith in it again." **She:** "It's not faith you need, but works." The humor turns on a pun: "works" simultaneously means the mechanical components of a watch and implies the man needs to demonstrate his devotion through *actions* rather than excuses. The wife suggests her husband's unreliability in keeping appointments—a common domestic complaint—requires more than apologies; he needs behavioral change. The cartoon mocks both male excuses and female exasperation with inattentive husbands.