Life, 1903-03-26 · page 9 of 24
Life — March 26, 1903 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 265 This page contains three brief satirical pieces typical of early-20th-century Life magazine humor: 1. **"In the Garden of Harmony"** (top illustration): A woodcut showing figures in a garden setting, captioned with dialogue about a man's eye being "on" someone—likely satirizing romantic entanglements or infidelity in fashionable society. 2. **"A Fable of Fashion"**: Satirizes a wealthy woman's social pretensions. She demands her servant be excused from duty, then complains when he complies—mocking the illogical demands of the fashionable elite and their poor treatment of domestic staff. 3. **"Facts in the Case" / "Hard to Believe" / "Dashaway"**: Brief joke exchanges about a woman's fidelity and motorcar driving, suggesting she has "the heart of a motorman"—early automotive satire about women drivers. The humor targets upper-class vanity and changing gender roles.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“ue CAN'T COME BETWEEN Us, JOUN. A Fable of Fashion. elegantly at- N . A tired lady, with ab tiful vic- toria waiting for her at the curb, stood at the front door of an old- fashioned and dignified man- i sion in Madison “Avenue. The butler said the mistress of the mansion w: home, and took the caller's card up- stairs. He returned presently saying that his mistress wished to be excused. Something there was in his manner that the caller did not like. Just he could not say, for the man- ner of servants is often vague and undefined. She drove to her own home, in a more expensive and modern neigh- IN THE GARDEN OF HARMONY. borhood, and sent a note to the mis- tress of the Madison sion, By her own liveried courier she shortly received this reply: Avenue man- Mapas: You have asked me to explain. You should know that your public disregard of those proprieties governing men and women, whatever t possible for + social position, makes self-respecting woman t prove of To rec would be approval. I do therefore I do not receive. our conduct, e you not approve, I had hoped you would not compel me to write this let- ter. but as you have asked for it, I give it to you with no apologies, I want you to understand clea y position, and you ever else you do. Regretting the necessity of this letter, but not its contents, Iam ; When the lady had finished the reading she laughed lightly and said with a little sigh: “How very few of the old-fashioned people are left to us.””" MY EAOLe’s EYE 19 ON MIM." Then she fared forth again in her victoria and she stopped at many beautiful houses, but was turned away from none. William J. Lampton, Facts in the Case. M ‘ONUMENT MAN: What shall +1 T put on your husband's tomb- stone, madam? DistractepD Wipow: Oh, say that he was my husband, and that he is happy now. Hard to Believe. SHE: You wouldn’t think Mr. Hen- peck had been married ten years, would you? Tue OLp Bacu.: No. well preserved, isn’t he? K Wonderfully [asnaway : You don’t mean to say she jilted you? CLeverton : She did, old man, That girl has the heart of a motorman. comicbooks.com