Life — December 4, 1913 — page 44: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page from *Life* magazine features a dark, atmospheric illustration accompanying a verse based on the nursery rhyme "There Was a Little Girl." The original rhyme ends "when she was good she was very good, but when she was bad she was horrid"—but this version inverts the moral: "when she was naughty she was very, very nice." The illustration shows shadowy figures in what appears to be an interior space, though specific identities are unclear from the image alone. The satirical point seems to be social commentary on the gap between outward respectability and hidden behavior—suggesting that bad behavior is actually rewarded or appreciated. Without additional context about the publication date or contemporary events, the precise target of satire remains uncertain, though it likely critiques hypocrisy or moral corruption in society.