Life, 1895-05-09 · page 13 of 18
Life — May 9, 1895 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents two contrasting poems about marriage, both attributed to real writers (Tom Hall and Tom Masson). The top poem romantically recalls a man tying his beloved's shoe at a dance—a tender moment of courtship filled with passion and longing. The bottom section inverts this sentiment: a medical anecdote where a sick man refuses to leave his doctor's office because his wife is hosting an afternoon tea at home. He'd rather endure his illness than face her social event, suggesting marital tedium has replaced romance. The satire targets the disillusionment of married life: what was once an intimate, thrilling gesture (tying a shoe) becomes mere domestic routine after seven years. The contrast between youthful romance and jaded domesticity—particularly the husband actively avoiding returning home—reflects early 20th-century anxieties about marriage's loss of excitement and the constraints of domestic obligation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HE stood by a door that was festooned with flowers, While the sound of the waltz floated lazily through ; And young bloods of fashion and maids with fat dowers Stood watching us, while I was tying her shoe. She wore a red stocking, soft, delicate silk. Her ankle just turned to perfection—yes two, And the edge of her petticoat, whiter than milk, here for an hour or so yet? I don’t want to go home just now.” “But you would be much better cared for there,” replied the medical man, “and I don't see any reason why you should want to stay here. Come, what difference does it make whether you get home now or an hour from now ?” “Tt makes a great difference,” exclaimed the man on the couch, with a look of intense anguish. ‘“ You may not know it, sir,” he went on, his voice rising with the excitement, as he clutched the physician by the arm and winced visibly at the thought what might be his fate, “* but my wife is giving an afternoon tea, and I thought I would rather wait until it is over with.” Tom Masson. I saw ; and I trembled— when tying her shoe. Ah me! for the days of young love and young life, For the days when my cares were both trifling and few ! Just seven long years I've been calling her ‘ wife,” And now think it a bore—when I'm tying her shoe. Tom Hall. comicbooks.com