Life, 1901-08-29 · page 12 of 20
Life — August 29, 1901 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "A Victim to Philanthropy" This satirical piece mocks a meditative kitten overwhelmed by guilt about wasting her nine lives. The cat has spent eight lives "not well," and now, burdened by philanthropic ideals, she torments herself with self-improvement schemes: devoting her second life to catching mice, her third to learning to catch birds, her fourth to "dying in captivity." The satire targets late 19th/early 20th-century *excessive* philanthropic moralizing—the pressure to constantly improve oneself and contribute to society. The kitten represents ordinary people crushed by unrealistic ethical demands. The punchline: she's "tired of living nine lives" and wants to die rather than endure another life of guilt-driven self-sacrifice. The final illustration of nine identical cat faces suggests her exhaustion is terminal.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“How shall | best Improve my lives? A Victim to Philanthropy. MEDITATIVE kitten looked wed- lines Across her furry, furrowed brow we of deepest thought. “How shall I best improve my lives?” heard | ninsin : © to live, 1 must not fritter appalling when T think how Tabby rtoiseshell n baby's ball.”* Has spent eight lives already, and not one of them spent well! « LIFE « But I shall plan mine carefully, and make them all sublime, And so leave noble paw prints on the shin- ing sands of Time. “Tm such a little kitten, the first life of them all se my tail around and play cond, 4 el nd T think it I be nice Entirely to devote my second life to cateh- ing mice. d, The fourth, I'l roll in catnip, oh! won't that be immense! The fifth, [think 1°ll yow! away garden fence. the back “To catching mice.” “ But no,—these are my pleasures, and it isn’t right a bit,— 1 know I ought to live my lives for others’ benefit. I'm sure I ought to try the philanthropic dodge, and that Is awful hard for such a small and ignorant little cat. “ Learning how to catch a bird.” “These questions overwhelm me!" She drew a shuddering sigh. “I'm tired of living my nine lives, I think I want to die!” And with a sad, despairing moan, the kitten, then and ther Gave up nine ghost cat was kil And once again a d by care. Carolyn Weils, comicbooks.com