Two big elements of late 19th century culture are represented in this cartoon. The early comic strip, soon to be dominated by Richard Felton Outcault's The Yellow Kid, was finding a footing in American culture, and the "British invasion" of popular music had already started to trickle over the Atlantic, although in dribs and drabs for the next 70 years. This particular strip appeared in that era's Life periodical of June 15, 1893, about a year after the song Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow-Wow had been published in London. Drawn by one of the magazine's featured cartoonists known only as Chip to readers, it embodies part of the future of comics, showing multiple panels and at least partial dialog balloons. It should not be lost on the viewer that the piece was being touted here as a children's song, in spite of its English music hall origins.