Life — December 4, 1902 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a classical mythology cartoon from *Life* magazine (page 481). The image depicts Mercury and Major Ursa, two constellations personified as classical figures with wings and drapery. The dialogue satirizes a romantic scandal: Mercury suggests that Major (Ursa) might be the missing "Mrs. Comet." Major Ursa responds that while she was once an asteroid, she "married out of her orbit" and as Mrs. Comet has "no position at all." The joke plays on astronomical terminology to mock women who lose social status through marriage—specifically, wives who abandon their own identity and position to become merely an appendage to their husband's name and station. This reflects turn-of-the-century feminist concerns about marriage law and women's legal standing.