Life, 1903-04-16 · page 9 of 22
Life — April 16, 1903 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Don't Quarrel with the Cabman" - A Great Invention This page satirizes the telephone's disruptive impact on domestic life. The headline story presents a humorous anecdote: a man's cook suddenly quit, forcing his wife to phone him at work. Through multiple phone calls, they accidentally hired the cook back at inflated cost—demonstrating how the telephone enables wasteful miscommunication and extends workplace problems into home life. The cartoon illustrations show a cabman repeatedly transporting a woman and her belongings around town due to telephone-enabled confusion. The satire mocks the telephone as a "great invention" that paradoxically creates chaos: it allows constant communication but facilitates misunderstandings, wastes money, and intrudes upon domestic peace. The cabman becomes collateral damage in this technological disruption.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-LIFE- “DON'T QUARREL WITH THE CABMAN A Great Invention. “ \7ES, sir, the telephone is the greatest invention of the age. Let me give you an illustration of what it can do, You know that I live out in the country?" “Yes.” “ Well, yesterday morning after Icame to town, my cook left suddenly, whereupon my wife immediately called me up and told me about it.”” “How much did it cost? "" “Oh, a mere nothing. Twenty-five cents.” “What happened then?” “ Well, Limmediately called up the manager of my ser- vant’s agency. Had some little trouble in getting her, it is true, but I got her.”” “What did sho say?" “Told me to call up a lady in Plainfield, who had a cook who was going to leave. I did so.”” **How much was that?" “Oh, fifty cents. I found out that the cook was there allright, and that she was a good cook. So then I called up my wife again.” ++ Twenty-five cents more.” “Yes Told: her about the lady who had the ok in Plainfield, and advised her to call her up and talk abont it. She did so." “ How much?" “Oh, about fifty cents. Well, sir, will you believe it, she engaged that cook over the telephone.” Did the cook come?" “No. Fact is, she didn’t show up, and my wife came to town herself to-day and got another. But that isn’t the point. What I wanted to show was what can be done with a telephone.” “As near as I can make out, the telephone cost you a couple of dollars, and took up time enough to disturb your whole day. Why, if you hadn't had a telephone in the first place you wouldn’t have known your cook left, and anyway it didn’t make any difference, because, after all, your wife had to come in and attend to the matter personally."’ “By Jove! You're right. I'll have that instrument taken out of my house at once.”’ comicbooks.com