Life, 1902-05-15 · page 6 of 20
Life — May 15, 1902 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Man Who Did" - Satire on Marital Compromise This cartoon satirizes a husband's approach to domestic happiness. Over twelve months, he progressively surrenders control to his wife: first delegating household management to her, then neglecting his business, then abandoning his hobbies entirely. The moral states: "It sometimes pays to do the wrong thing." The satire cuts both ways—mocking both the husband's spinelessness and the implicit critique of wives who dominate their marriages. By the final panel showing him confined indoors, the joke is that his complete capitulation has backfired: he's achieved neither marital harmony nor personal satisfaction. The accompanying comic strip (right) humorously depicts a maid's chaotic housekeeping, reinforcing early-20th-century anxieties about domestic service and household management.
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ap G BUIiF uw FA HE story of a tramp, not one of Josiah Flynt's friends, but man half gentleman, half gypsy, whose blood calls him to far places and God’s out-of-doors, and of the woman whom love leads to follow his rovings, is told by Elizabeth Godfrey in The Winding Road. It isa sad story, but very human, and handled with per- fect sympathy. (Henry Holt and Company. $1.50.) Spindle and Plough, by Mrs. Henry Dudeney, is the remarkable romance of a ‘lady gardener,” engaged by an eligible widower at the dying request of his first wife. A “lady gardener,” by the way, seems to be something between a “‘sales-lady” and a“ lady- friend.” There are other books better worth while. (Dodd, Mead and Company. $1.50.) Close upon the heels of Mr, Long's Naughty Nan comes The Mis- demeanors of Nancy, by Eleanor Hoyt. We are inclined to tall in love with Nan and to flirt with Nancy, who is a bright little witch, and knows énough to marry before we grow tired of her. (Double- day, Page and Company. $1.50.) The Marriage of Mr. Merrivale, by Cecil Headlam, is a very poor story, and yet contains indications of better things to come. There 5 aS are interludes of bright conversation, and at times its characters seem about to become concrete personalities. Ifthe author is dis- satisfied with it, we shall look for his next book with interest. (G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.50.) Josiah Flynt, in whose studies of criminals and tramps many of us have been deeply interested, has undertaken to add a strain of romance to his latest work, The Little Brother, nterest in the au- thor's facts will carry his fiction, but they would stand better alone. (The Century Company. $1.50.) Glass and Gold, by James O. G. Duffy, describes the campaigns of a rich California grass-widow against New York, London and Paris society. Without prejudice to the amount of shallowness and venality to be found in smart circles, Mr. Duffy's book is crude, sensational and trashy. (J. B. Lippincott Company, Phila- delphia. $1.50.) : The Romance of a Rogue, by Joseph Sharts, is an amusing little comedy, wherein two clever but disreputable Thespians assume the role of gentlemen for a short engagement in real life. The scene is in New Jersey in Revolutionary times. (H. S. Stone and Com- J.B, Kerfoot, The Man Who Did. CERTAIN man, having been married a year, and be- coming con: ed, after reading a book on the subject, that he could improve on his present domestic happi- ness, started out to fill the following program : The first month he said to his wife : ““My dear, you are overworked ; let me take the burden off your shoulders. Hereafter I will engage all the sery- ants,” And he did so, The second month he came again and said : “ Now let me run the housebold. I will even neglect my business to smooth the way for yi I'll confer with the butcher and the baker and the grocer man. You can amuse yourself reading the latest fiction.” And this was done. Again, in the third month he said : ‘Now, my dear, let me learn to take care of the baby, while you play golf.” And his wife, after much coaxing, allowed him to do this also. Thus matters went on for twelve months, the husband gradually relieving his wife of all unpleasant matters. At the end of this period his self-denial and acute discernment began to be apparent, for, having her time all to herself, she wrote a popular book that sold a half a million copies, and enabled them to live in ease and comfort all the rest of their lives, MORAL: It sometimes pays to do the wrong thing. Tom Masson, all men had been born equal, there would have been no Declaration of Independence. Ir NOT AT HOM A SWEET MAID OF OLD HERCULANEUM “TWERE VAIN HER TO SEEK PICKED A BEE THAT WAS ON A GERANIUM, IN THE SMART SET OF OLD KERCULAN- AND FOR MORE THAN A WEEK tomt Sure! JHE novelists of America are be- come a wealthy class ; there is no longer any reason why they should not have recognition in the tariff laws of our country. - American novelists ought to get to- gether without delay and demand the enactment of laws that should exclude from our markets the work of the pau- per novelists of Europe, notably the Russian and Polish, who do not write for money exclusively, and are satisfied to live comfortably without ostentation. comicbooks.com