Life, 1902-12-25 · page 42 of 77
Life — December 25, 1902 — page 42: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page presents romantic satire centered on Christmas courtship rituals among the wealthy leisure class. **The Main Cartoon** (top) depicts a man who traveled 200 miles to a Christmas house party to compete with a rival for a woman's affections—only to discover she's already accepted the other man. It's satirizing the absurd lengths gentlemen go to for romantic advantage. **The Poetry Sections** ("The Rehearsal" and "Toccata—Adagio") humorously recount flirtations involving mistletoe kisses and New Year's Eve romantic maneuvering. The humor relies on the tension between Victorian propriety and actual desire—characters "rehearse" kisses under mistletoe as social cover. **The Bottom Dialogue** mocks the homeless wealthy: a child wants a balloon for Christmas, while parents discuss owning multiple seasonal residences (Newport, Lenox, Florida) but having "no home." It satirizes the disconnection of the ultra-rich from normal life. **Overall Point**: The page gently ridicules upper-class romantic games and the absurdities of gilded-age society, where wealthy people lack genuine belonging despite material abundance.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
IT 18 SvCH A GLap ME PEELING, WHEN, IN ORDEK TO GET ATEAD OF IS HATED RIVAL, A MAN THAVELS TWO HUNDRED MILES TO MEET HER AT A CHKISTMAS HOUSE PARTY, AND THEN PINDS THAT SHE HAS ALREADY ACCEPTED THE OTHER MAN. The Rehearsal. V (7 ITIL Sylvia's aid, Vd decked and dra delier With mistletos “ Christmas will soon be her msel dear, ed the chan- cried she, Her eyes up-glancing roguishly, “ How awfully jolly!" Swift from her look Teaught the eue. Who'd not, with x oe in view, And dare to meet reversal? “A lack of practice, sooth, were sad !” I said to her, and—well, we bad A kiss-rehearsal ! Clinton Scollard, €Q ANTY, my son, how wonld you like kK Toccata—Adagio. | YRICKED and evaded under the mistletoe, I vowed she should not foil my latest chance, Then when the clock struck twe d all our dance Broke, and we hushed to hear the old year go: Yet though the kiss was mine by right, and though the clock we stood, it seemed a crime : For sighing ‘‘Good-by!” and “ O these tears of time!” Wet eyes she ga at knelling long and slow. But while the last stroke lingering closed the year, She dropped the mask, this rogue, this jade, O this a !—she turned, and all one flout and fleer nked up the stairs her rally of rakish skirts : . ‘Are all girls flirts? Happy New Year!” she trilled, and blew me a kiss, J. Russell Taylor, “TPHEY have places at Newport, Lenox, Richfield aballoon fora Christmas present?” “TI would like a balloon, pa, aboveall things on Earth!" Springs, Los Angeles and Florida.” “But where is their home?” “They haven’t any.” “THE SCN 18 NOT THE ONLY THING THAT CAN MELT AN ICY wragt.” comicbooks.com