Life, 1899-05-11 · page 5 of 20
Life — May 11, 1899 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 397 Analysis: Life Magazine Satire This page contains three distinct satirical pieces: 1. **"Come, Come, Don't Smile, and Look Pleasant"** - A naturalistic sketch of a monkey posing with a bicycle, seemingly mocking staged photography or artificial posturing. 2. **"Hats"** - A poem critiquing women's elaborate hat fashions, sarcastically wondering why women choose such impractical, oversized headwear decorated with natural elements (feathers, leaves). The satire targets both the absurdity of the fashion itself and men's bewilderment at women's choices. 3. **"Her Choice"** and **"A Shocking Display"** - Cartoons mocking women's fashion choices and physical comedy. One depicts an electrocution-like scenario; another shows domestic chaos, suggesting women's clothing or behavior causes household disruption. The overall theme satirizes late 19th/early 20th-century women's fashion as impractical and ridiculous.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“COME, COME, NOW! SMILE, AND LOOK PLEASANT.” Hats. ‘HE more I think of this and that, Tho mure I wonder why a hat Should be a gardon or a hearse, A chicken-coop, or even worse— A natural history parado Of murdered things in every shade, The more I wonder why its crown Bhould be a landscape, red and brown, Of autumn leaves, bedecked and strewn With cherries bright that como in June. And is it just an Idle whim That builds a plaza for a brim, Then bolsters it with plants and flowers, And litters it with Eifel towers? No wonder men aro prone to swear At tho obstructions women wear. The more I think of everything, From polar snows to birds in spring, The moro I wonder why a man Should wear a black inverted can, Tho which is dearer to his heart Than pen can paint or tonguo impart. Or why the sage who can afford Should sport a crippled mortar- board, Which innocent affair he pops The instant that the curtain drops. And hero the doubly more I ponder, For, with an ugly burst of thun- der, A foot or two into the air Explodes tho thing theso croa- tures wear, No wonder women wonder why Men blame the harmless things they buy. J.B. 4 SHOCKING DISPLAY. Her Choice. «¢€7F I were a stock specula- tor,” said Miss Tommey, “Tam quite sure that I should be a short. It must be per- fectly delightful to be a short.” “ What makes you say that?” asked Miss Flypp. “The shorts are squeezed so often.” Thus do women run away with metaphor, while forgetting or overlooking the facts on which the metaphor is based, “THE YOUNG MAN'S FACE WAS AGAINST HIM. * comicbooks.com