Life, 1892-04-28 · page 7 of 14
Life — April 28, 1892 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Managing a Husband" - Life Magazine Satire This page satirizes early 20th-century domestic gender dynamics. The cartoon titled "Managing a Husband" depicts a wife directing her husband at the breakfast table, instructing him to order specific items from the market and threatening that he'll "forget all about it unless you leave the house hungry." The satire mocks both spouses: the wife as a controlling domestic manager, the husband as incompetent and forgetful without her direction. The accompanying text discusses a widow who remarries a successful novelist, suggesting she manages him similarly—implying wives "manage" husbands through manipulation rather than partnership. The lower illustration shows dogs, likely a humorous aside unrelated to the main satire. The "New Books" section lists contemporary publications, typical of Life's content.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
MANAGING A HUSBAND. He: THERE ISN'T ENOUGH ON THIS BREAKFAST TABLE TO FEED A CANARY BIRD. She: I KNOW IT, MY DEAR; BUT THERE ARE SEVERAL THINGS I WANT YOU TO ORDER FROM THE MARKET, AND I KNOW YOU'LL FORGET ALL ABOUT IT UNLESS YOU LEAVE THE HOUSE HUNGRY. because he believes “she is not a woman who forgets"—though she is very young and her first husband has been dead four years. But he has his twelve millions, and can write a successful novel in four weeks, and has no iacumbrances except an aged father who takes care of himself. Though the last page of the story leaves the picture of the lonely man, with “ closed eyes and an expression of intense pain on his face"—yet the reader, wise in the ways of the world, will feel perfectly sure that before the book reaches a second edition the widow will have captured the hero, and they will live miserably forever after. Droch. NEW BOOKS. OHN WARD'S GOVERNESS. By A. Lyndsay MacGregor. New York: G. W. Dillingham. The Old Harbor Town, By Augusta Campbell Watson. New York: G. W. Dillingham. Selected Poems. By Walt Whitman, New York: Charles L. Webster and Company. Imperial Purple, By Edgar Saltus. Chicago: Morrill, Higgins and Company. “Great Scot, Tom! WHAT DOES TINS MEAN?" The Chevalier of Pensieri, By Henry B. Fuller, New York: The Century «Ip MANS THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR KEEPS A POODLE, Company. Colonel Starbottle’s Client and Some Other People. By Bret Harte. Boston and “NP MY FOLKS ARE BOUND TO BE UP WITH THE New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. FASHION.” comicbooks.com