Life, 1902-08-28 · page 12 of 20
Life — August 28, 1902 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes advice columns and courtship customs of the early 20th century. The headline announces "A BIG FISH STORY," with illustrations showing fishermen catching large fish—a visual metaphor for "catching" a husband. The article mocks a young woman's claim that her fiancé "didn't do anything" to win her, suggesting she's being disingenuous. The author argues that marriage requires mutual effort and that women—especially in states with male majorities—have a duty to marry. The fish-catching imagery is the central joke: husbands are portrayed as prizes to be "caught" like fish. The satirical tone critiques both women's passivity in courtship narratives and the transactional nature of marriage discussions in contemporary society.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A BIG FISH STORY, How to Find a Husband. pee ae DIDN’T do exire + anything— he did it all,’ a very amiable young lady whom I knoy’ answered when sh& nnounced to me her engage- ment and I asked her how she did it. In this she is mistaken, because when congenial souls are brongh* together friendships are apt to be formed which lead, Jn many instances, to very happy partnerships for life to which both contribute. If I were not married, and lived in a city where the ‘women were in the majority, as they certainly are in New York (about two hundred thousand more women, I think, in the city than men), I would not stay in New York. God has provided a mate for each one of us ; it is a popular fallacy that there are more women in the world than men, but this is not trae—the census of the world shows that there are more male children born than female, and in the United States, according to the last census, there are two million (2,000,000) more men than women. Wise Provi- dence, in providing a mate for each one, did not intend that we should live singly. As the home is the foundation of the nation, and on its purity and strength depends the nation’s welfare, mach more than on its armies, it is the absolate duty of every woman to find a mate—at least meet him half-way, even if she deludes herself with the belief, as the young lady just stated to me, that “he did it all. There are many States in the Union where men are greatly in the majority, especially in the middle West. I have, in traveling in the West, met many bachelors (in fact, four old bachelors in our family), and when Lasked them why they did not marry, they said that the women in the West were hard to find, and those who were left over they did not care to take as their wives. So why commit suicide or grieve if you find that the man who has asked you tomarry him isnot worthy of you? Do not marry with the idea of reforming him, for this very seldom happens, but send to Washington for a census bulletin, which the Government comicbooks.com