Life — April 22, 1926 — page 17: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This illustration depicts a street scene titled "The Gay Nineties," showing well-dressed men in period clothing gathered on a sidewalk, with children visible in the background. The caption includes German text: "Da, da liegt mir im Herzen, / Da, da liegt mir im Sinn" (roughly "That's what lies in my heart"). The accompanying diary entry by "Mrs. Peps" references a social lunch and discusses relationships, marriages, and romantic entanglements among acquaintances. The cartoon appears to satirize 1890s social conventions—the formality of dress, the gossipy nature of polite society, and the gap between proper public behavior and private romantic scheming that the diary entry reveals. The humor lies in exposing social hypocrisy.