Life, 1910-04-21 · page 29 of 44
Life — April 21, 1910 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page reprints a classic satirical essay by Joseph Addison from *The Spectator* (early 1700s), paired with a John Leech cartoon from *Punch*. **The text** presents Honeycomb's comically unsuccessful courtship attempts. Each rejection exposes social anxieties of the era: a prospective father-in-law rejects him for his past association with a surgeon (low social status); a widow demands he consult her attorney about finances; a young lady elopes rather than marry him; heiresses' parents block the match despite the women's interest. **The satire targets**: male vanity (Honeycomb thinks himself a "handsome young dog"), mercenary marriage practices, parental control over daughters' choices, and social class rigidity. **The cartoon** shows a juvenile party where Alfred asks Frank about supper while Frank deliberately waits until "the women leave the room"—likely satirizing male behavior: boys prioritizing food over politeness, or avoiding female company. Both pieces mock courtship conventions and social pretension through accumulated small failures rather than dramatic events.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Alfred Frank: 1 SAY, Will Honeycomb’s Courtship (From the “ Spectator, «lddison) ily guess that I have not lived so long without having had some thoughts of settling in it, as the phrase is. To tell you truly, | have several times tried my fe that way, though I can’t much boast of my by Joseph y first addresses to a young the country; bat when T hings were pretty well dr. conclusion, her father happe to hear that [had formerly urded with a surgeon, the old put forbid me his house, and within a fort- t after married his daughter to a hunter in the neighborhood I made lady in thought 0 fox T made my next appl nto a widow, and attacked her so briskly that I thought myself within a_fort- ht of her. As 1 waited upon her g she told me that she in- tended to keep her ready money coln’s Inn, who would adjust with me FRANK, A—NOT AT Pk “LIFE: pa vq yA A BON.BON FROM A JUVENILE PARTY 1 SHALL WAIT TILL THE AREN'T YOU GOING TO HAVE SOME SUPPER? WOMEN LEAVE THE ROOM —One of John Leech's Famous Pictures in Punch. it was proper for me to add to I was so rebuffed by this over lure that [ never inquired either for her or her attorney afterward what it \ few months after 1 addressed my- self to a young lady w daughter, and of a good danced with her at several balls, squeezed her by the hand, said soft s to her, and, in short, made no peart; and tho fortune was not equal to hers, | was in hopes that her fond father would r the man she had fixed ns upon. But as 1 went one day to the house in order to break the matter to him [ found the whole family in confusion, and heard, to my able surprise, that Miss Jenny at very morning run away with I then courted a second widow, and am at a loss to this day how I came to miss her, for she had often commended my person and behavior. Her maid, indeed, told_me one day that her mis tress had said she never saw a gentle man with such a spindle pair of legs as Mr. Honeycomb. After this I laid siege to four heir- esses successively, and being a hand some young dog in those days, quickly made a breach in their hearts. But I know how it came to pass, though failed of getting the daug ter's consent, | could never in get the old people on my side T could give thousand other particularly of years since uf I had certai you an account of a ccessful attempts, ne which | made some v old woman, whom y borne away with flying colors, if her relations had not pouring in to her assistance f parts of England y, I should have got t last if she not been carried off by a hard frost Ancient Logic Stratonicus, music master, a well in a town with pale- asked if the water We drink it,” 1 hen,” replied One water-drawe tis not dr —Athenacus, comicbooks.com