Life, 1904-12-01 · page 29 of 64
Life — December 1, 1904 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two satirical pieces typical of early 20th-century Life magazine humor: **Top cartoon ("Christmas Eve at Our Post"):** depicts a domestic comedy about gift-giving. A husband cleverly gives his wife a photograph as a Christmas gift, expecting minimal expense. However, the wife subsequently purchases expensive items (rubies, Tiffany boxes) and sends the bills to him—the joke being that his "ruse" backfired spectacularly. The satire targets both marital financial dynamics and wives' spending habits, a common theme in period humor. **"Early Rising" article:** satirizes the popular Victorian/Edwardian virtue of early morning activity. It mocks the romanticized notion that dawn walks yield spiritual refreshment, revealing instead physical exhaustion, aching knees, and eventual collapse—making the only rational solution a return to bed. The humor lies in deflating pretentious health advice through honest observation. **Sidebar personal ad:** a humorous "lost and found" where someone addresses "Santa Claus" as if real, maintaining the magazine's comedic tone throughout.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Very well; make it two dozen, and —and send the bill to my husband.”’ Soon after the advent of the glad New Year, the husband sat in his office gazing admiringly at the new photograph in his watch and chuck- ling to himself over his successful ruse, when a sheaf of bills was brought to him. As he opened one after another, he trembled with a strong emotion and his face grew ashen white. “Fool!” he cried, beating his breast; “fool! And I thought myself clever! Had I known aught of the heart of woman, I should have begged her to buy me some little thing out of her allowance, and she would have pur- chased a solid gold inkstand set with tubies at the Ten-Cent store and presented it to me in a Tiffany box." Mrs. Wilson Woodrow. Persoxat: Will the nice-looking old gentleman with white beard, who called himself Santa Claus, and whom I saw yesterday in a department store, meet me Christmas morning at 4 A. M. sharp, in my chimney corner? Address Witue B., care of Lire. CHRISTMAS EVE AT OUR POST. GENEMAL CORBIN SAVS THE ARMY 18 BEING OVERMARRIED. Early Rising. ARLY rising has been generally extolled from time immemorial by the majority, anda few foolish ones have actually practised it. When the first faint flush of dawn is begin- ning to tint the eastern sky, it is said to be a grand and glorious thing to get up out of bed and sally forth to see the sun rise and to drink in all that peculiar freshness of Nature that can only be enjoyed at this time of day. In order not to miss anything, one should walk to the brow of some distant hill two or three miles away, where a panorama of unsurpassed loveliness unfolds itself on every hand, The feelings one has on this occasion are better imagined than described, which is an ex- pression original with us—copyright applied for. This feeling lasts up to ten or eleven o'clock, when we begin to slow down a little, and are conscious that our knees are weaker than we ever knew. At noon we havea slight pain in the back of the neck. Attwo P.M. we lapse into a state of coma, and at five we feel as if our spine had been removed and all hope was lost, We have tried several ways of rising early, but the one that appeals to us most is to get up about five in the morning, shut all the blinds, and slip noiselessly and unremorselessly back into bed. “WHAT ARRE Yo! GoIN’ TO DO, PAT?” “SHURE, I'M GOIN’ TO SWIM ASHORE AN’ SAVE MESRLP, AND THIN SWIM BACK AN’ SAVE You."” comicbooks.com