Life, 1894-03-22 · page 15 of 22
Life — March 22, 1894 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate satirical pieces mocking social pretension and ignorance: **Top cartoon**: A man is defended for treating a woman badly on a streetcar—the joke being the assumption she's his wife, implying husbands routinely mistreat wives without scandal. **Middle story ("A Neglected Education")**: A snobbish female patron demands reading recommendations from a librarian but proves completely ignorant. She asks for books by "George Elliot" (George Eliot, the famous novelist) without knowing the author died decades earlier. The librarian's "guarded smile" conveys his silent judgment of her pretentious ignorance. **Bottom story**: Two upper-class women discuss "scrapple" (a Pennsylvania food). The Bostonian misunderstands it as a person's name, asking "What has he written?"—revealing she's so out of touch she mistakes regional dishes for authors. All three pieces satirize wealthy, cultured women who perform sophistication while displaying profound ignorance, a common target of early 20th-century American humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“1 SAW HIM TREAT A LADY SHAMEFULLY ON A STREET CAR TO-DAY, HE DESERVED A COWHIDING,” ‘Don’? SPEAK TOO HASTILY. PERHAPS SHE WAS HIS WIFE.” “What they was called. Oh, dear, no! but they was have heard of it, for we are a very literary family,” said the mostly love stories. The librarian was still at a loss. lady, patronizingly. ‘ No doubt you are mistaken, but never mind, I will call again when there is someone here who “Oh, well, never mind. Just you pick me out something to knows something about the books.” read. There must be some books worth reading on them And she turned and swept complacently out, leaving the shelves,” said the lady, as she raised her lorgnettes again, and glanced at the backs of the one hundred and_ twenty-five thousand volumes stacked up in serried rows in the inner rooms. “ Certainly; what sort of a book would you care for “Oh, I don’tknow!" Then she asked with the air of having tried to recollect something, and at last succeeded. “ Has George jot’ written anything new, lately ?”” “Not for publication,’ answered the librarian, with a guarded smile. “She 2) = has been dead some years.” “That can't be possible, or I should librarian in a state of dazed amazement. Harry Romaine. A NEGLECTED EDUCATION. es ISS BEANLEIGH,” said the sweet Philadelphian to the fair Bostonian, “ do you like scrapple ?” “Scrapple? Scrapple?” queried the fair Bostonian, “1 never heard of him ? What has he written?” At the lovely girls appear to be getting engaged. It seems as if they had found leisure in Lent to attend THE MEETING OF THE WATERS. to it. comicbooks.com