Life — March 19, 1903 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page from *Life* magazine presents "Alice in March," a serialized fiction story illustrated with a sketch showing two young women. One wears a large decorated hat and coat; the other, identified as "Elsie Venner" in the text, appears to be a serpent-woman with a long, snake-like lower body. The story references a "Snake Club" with a female president named Eve, and includes discussion of serpents, Dragons, St. George, and Perseus—classical and biblical allusions. The satire appears to mock exclusive women's social clubs of the era, using the serpent mythology ironically. The "boa-constrictor" references and snake imagery suggest commentary on the dangers or seductive nature of such exclusive female societies, playing on period anxieties about women's independent social organizations.