Life, 1897-02-18 · page 13 of 20
Life — February 18, 1897 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The cartoon depicts a humorous social commentary on romantic scandal and class attitudes. A working-class man (indicated by his striped uniform, likely a street worker or laborer) is confronted by a well-dressed woman about an alleged affair with another man's wife. The satire works on multiple levels: the man defends himself by noting he receives flowers daily—suggesting even "despised creatures" can be objects of affection, which undercuts the woman's moral condemnation. The accompanying text about "Professor Wilder" collecting brains from educated people appears to be absurdist satire, implying that moral judgment of others' romantic conduct requires intelligence the critic may not possess. The joke relies on period class attitudes: a working man's romantic entanglement is treated as scandalous by supposedly more "moral" upper-class observers, yet he demonstrates he's valued despite his station. The final aphorism about girls discovering ankles through long skirts is separate observational humor about fashion and self-awareness.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“T HEAR YOU ARE IN FOR RUNNING OFF WITH ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE. “1 AM NOT ALTOGETHER DESPISED, MADAME, SOR WILDER, of Cor- , is making a collection of the brains of educated and moral per- sons, and will be obliged if any lady or gentleman who is not using her or his brains at present will let him have them. He says that the current notion that the top of the head has to besawn off to get the brains out is hostile to the interests of his collection and is quite false, since he gives assurance that the removal may be 4ccomplished by a single incision and without disfigure- ment, while —as the horse-doctors POOR, DESPISED CREATURE!" HE SENDS ME FLOWERS EVERY DAY.” say —the patient stands in his stall and eats oats. Only ‘‘educated and moral” persons need respond. T is not until a girl puts on long skirts that she realizes that she has ankles. comicbooks.com