Puck, 1879-03-19 · page 5 of 16
Puck — March 19, 1879 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical comic strip mocks Parisian office workers enduring extreme cold during winter. The narrative follows Monsieur Grenouillet, a company manager who refuses to light the office fireplace despite freezing temperatures, claiming economy. The humor centers on the absurd consequences: employees work in coats and hats, thermometers freeze solid, and staff collapse from cold exposure. A doctor is eventually called to treat the hypothermic workers. The final panel shows Grenouillet's household staff suffering similarly, suggesting his stinginess extends everywhere. The satire critiques miserly employers who prioritize cost-cutting over worker welfare and basic comfort—a commentary on industrial-era labor conditions. The exaggerated visual comedy emphasizes how ridiculous and inhumane such penny-pinching truly is.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
PUCK. 1. “Monsleur Grenouillet, of the [rm of Grenoulllet, Robinet et Cle., positively refuses to have a fire lit in the office, and expresses his contempt for the degenerate ‘uth of the day, who feel cold when the thermometer three degrees above zero. Brabma! 1 Why, 4. “Wonder what the thermometer is ? Hol; Sixty degrees above zero! Impossible—can’t T'm as cold as an iceberg :” 7. Total collapse of Grenouillet. He is escorted home hy two of his employees; and the junior clerk takes oveasion to remark that when his late-lamented aunt on the mother’s side departed this life, she exhibited the same remarkable symptoms. Ha qs 2, Next day it is six below. The clerical corps of the Grenouillet office enters into a conspiracy; and with the assistance of the office-boy, who is on friendly terms with the obliging cook of a neighboring restaurant, all the thermometers in the place are carefully and thoroughly 5, “Yes, sixty ! No mistake about it, Sixty by all the three thermometers. And every door and window open suallthe clerks In their shirt-sleeves. I don’t understand ‘this at all!” 8& The family physician is called in, and wants to know how M. Grenouillet finds himself. "M. Grenouillet is freezing. “OF course, of course, my dear sir. Naturally you think you feel so. You're in a raging fever. But with care and rest, and an equable temperature, and this little prescription, we'll bring yon through all right.” A COOL GENERATION. 3. At half-past eight in the morping Grenouillet comes down to the office. Me is a relic of the sturdy last generation, but he feels a certain chilliness in his marrow-bones. 6. And the gay young junior clerk, passing by, casu- ally remarks: “ You don’t look very well this morning, Monsieur Grenouillet.” “Well, my boy, the fact is, I feel just a sh “Chilly! " Why, it’s so hot we can scarcely be lit at the end of Aug t and kept going until the end of May. J comicbooks.com