Life, 1893-11-09 · page 5 of 18
Life — November 9, 1893 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "A Distressful Female" - Life Magazine This satirical piece critiques a woman's social anxiety about meeting another woman at a gathering. The dialogue reveals period attitudes: the anxious woman fears the introduction because she worries about social competition and maintaining her exclusive circle of acquaintances. The satire targets upper-class snobbery—particularly the idea that knowing "useful" people serves social advantage, while meeting new people randomly threatens one's carefully curated social position. The correspondent (E.S.M.) mocks this exclusivity, suggesting the woman is actually missing opportunities for genuine human connection and mutual aid. The accompanying sketch shows Victorian-era women in formal dress, emphasizing the rigid social hierarchies the text satirizes. The piece lambastes aristocratic insularity and the fear of social mobility that characterized certain privileged circles.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
— ml Che 5. A DISTRESSFUL FEMALE. HE lady seems worried ? She 7s worried; badly. And what might be the trouble ? You see that other woman over there ? Yes, She is afraid that woman is going to be introduced to her. And why not? Oh, she doesn’t want to know her. Anything that’s catching the matter with the other woman ? Oh, no! Nothing. Morals bad? Kleptomaniac ? Oh, no, Book agent? Collector? Female correspondent ? No, no, Good woman enough I guess. Then why should our lady worry so? She thinks that for the other woman to get to know her would be useful to the other woman. Whereas? Having a select acquaintance already, she prefers to admit to it only such new people as promise to be useful to her. So she is distressed for fear that some social virtue may go. out of her in spite of herself? Borrower ? That seems about it. Dear, dear! How full of hazards life is, even in time of peace. To be sure. Why doesn’t she get insured, or even stay at home and be safe? She might miss meeting someone whose acquaintance she may need. She seems not to appreciate the charms of variety ? No, she does not care for variety in hers. Exclusiveness is good enough for her. She does not care to meet on equal terms any one who is not of the sort and set that she aspires to. Poor lad; he is in for a dull time, isn't she? It looks that way: Unless it should dawn on her sometime that the most lucrative of all people to know are the people whom one can help. And she does not seem to be much in the way of finding that out? No, poor thing; no she doesn’t ELS. M. comicbooks.com