Reading "The Saturday Evening Post"

I read the July 4, 1885 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. I thought this publication was interesting. It gave me some fantastic insight on what was popular in the 1880s. The issue was composed of several short stories, poems, brief articles, humorous articles, and advertisements.

One of the first articles in this issue was called "Are You Ready." It was a short passage about men seeking work. The article emphasized the difference between readiness and willingness to work. Readiness is the most desirable quality in an employee because it means they're not only willing to work, but prepared and able to work. I thought this was an interesting.

I liked the feature called "Bric-a-Brac." It contained short advertisements and stories that were funny. The first part advertised "paper bed-clothing" that was made of "No. 1 manilla." The ad claimed that the bed set was both "warm" and withstands wrinkling because it can be easily ironed. Another part of this feature told a story of a woman whose potential husband would only marry her if she could give him 50 pounds. So, she went to London and sold her hair for $300. Then, she returned to him and "bought a husband."

"Bric-a-Brac" also had a short feature that explained the following math trick:
Take the day of the month on which you were born and multiply it by two. Then add 7 to it. Multiply that by 50 and then add your current age. Subtract 365 from that number and multiply this result by 100. Add the number of the month (1 for January, 2 for February, etc.) and then add 1500 to get the final result. When you do this, the first or first two figures will represent the day of your birth, the next two will be your current age, and the last 2 will be the month. I tried it out and it worked, so that was pretty cool.

I thought it was strange that several of the short stories don't include an author's name. Most of them simply say "written by the author of "Blank," "Blankity," and "Blankity blank." Also, the short stories are almost always a continuation of a story from a previous issue and they tend to end with "To be continued." I can just imagine people anticipating their next issue of The Saturday Evening Post so that they can find out what happens next in the story.

One of the articles I thought was particularly representative of the time was "Should Young Ladies Decline?" This article was about what type of behavior is acceptable for young women in the late 19th century. The article started out with some trivial things that ladies should decline, such as "an excess of peanuts," too much chewing gum, "too many plates of ice cream," and the deceptive use of "artificial beautifiers" (makeup). These points address ladies' appearances through diet and fashion. Then the article moved to social behavior, such as accepting invitations to an invite from more than one escort (a big no-no even today) and engaging in gossip about other women. This was an interesting look at what types of behavior were ideal for women in the 19th century.

The last article was about the latest fashion trends. I thought it was strange that this didn't include any type of graphics. There were no sketches of clothing or anything. The entire article was just descriptions of big fashion trends. In today's fashion magazine, images are the priority and the text is typically light. The writers refer to certain outfits as "pretty little costumes" and "deliciously cool costumes." The use of the word "costume" was kind of neat. I think that saying "costume" emphasizes the fact that you're dressing to look a certain way and be fashionable rather than dressing out of necessity.

I liked this issue, but I wish it had been more visual. Today, we're such visual learners and to be truly engaged, we need visual components to hold our interest. Magazines just seem strange without pictures of any kind.