Life — April 21, 1898 — page 13: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a single-panel domestic comedy cartoon satirizing class relations and servant culture. A well-dressed gentleman caller asks a new servant if he can see "your mistress." The servant replies that she isn't dressed yet but will ask her. The joke relies on deliberate misunderstanding: the caller assumes "mistress" means the lady of the house, but the servant's phrasing ("your mistress") suggests a kept woman or illicit partner rather than an employer. This double entendre creates humor by implying the caller may be visiting for improper purposes, while the servant's innocent response masks potential scandal. The cartoon mocks both the caller's potentially disreputable intentions and period social conventions around domestic service and propriety.