Life, 1905-05-18 · page 21 of 32
Life — May 18, 1905 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This story-cartoon satirizes wealthy American women's exhausting social lives in the early 1900s. A fragile, overworked woman visits a distinguished physician complaining of fatigue and nervous strain. She describes her supposed "rest" activities: playing golf, changing gowns repeatedly, attending charity tableaux, bridge games, and elaborate meals—all activities she considers relaxation. The doctor claims to know a secret place where one can live simply. When she pays him fifty thousand dollars for the location, he reveals the punchline: "New York in summer!" The satire mocks upper-class leisure as genuinely exhausting and performative. Even their "rest" involves constant costume changes and social obligations. The joke suggests that wealthy women cannot escape the social treadmill—there is no true refuge from the relentless demands of maintaining one's social position, not even in remote locations.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
changed my gown < went to the races, then changed my dinner, and changed gown to take part in some tab- feaux gown for {ter dinner my vants for charity, and then I changed my gown and—" “And this is what you call rest and relaxation after the whirl of the win- ter?" “Itis the best imita- tion that I can procure at the highest possible " she answered sad- ly. “Go where you will, it is the same. F the forests of Maine to the everglades of Florida, one must still change one’s gowns with mad- dening frequency The Doctor smiled “Listen, woman,” he said.“ Through the in- of some of strumentality my less wealthy patients I have discovered a spot THE GLORIOUS FOURTH, where one m lead the simple life, It is not a pleasant subject, but unfortunately far from the adding In its issue of July 10, 1902, LiFe published this picture. its truth has been demonstrated ia so many cases since that date benefit of our readers, The Isle of Rest. FRAGILE woman sat in the luxuriously ut ph es fixed pleadingly the last few ve exquisitely gowned furnished offices of a gr ysician, her upon his face th had been steadily declining, and she ow of her ars her hea but a liant self th nad taken her to Florida and. was now mere sl former ra Upor advice of her doctors, her h to southern California fore, and the winter be- and to Europe in the spring ; and now she had run up from the country to consult the world-fam S specialist “There is no organic affection,” announced the distinguished — man. + he had pounded, and pum ced, and thumped her thoroughly. No; they all say that," she ven- tured timidly ; ‘and that my high- sensitive temperament 1 strung, rely unfits me to withstand this nerve: American climate. It is on punt that I suffer so terribly from a constant sense of fatigue, and wearing this ac violent indigestion.” “May [ ask,” inquired the Doctor, xu employ the ti “how y “Very quictly now,” she answered with a sigh, “T the no longer have the strength for social amusements Yesterday I played golf for an hour or two in the morning, changed my gown and took a hand at Bridge, then changed m gown and ate a little luncheon which once engrossed simple lobster farci, a game truffles andar! aad, frozen cream pudding, a little f and and some bons—a And then I of clams and pate, a bird, some chokes, champagne, a me uit bon- coffee bite. cheese, mere hat this year we are re-publishing it for the We are doing this in advance of the Fourth of July, hoping it may have an effect. crowd, ignorant of the world and its works." * And the name, the this the isle in the garden woman, name of hidden cried springing to her feet away sea, perchance; an oasis lying jewel- ands of the desert?” ith in the drifting hat is my secret, Madame,” w le. rich,” she urg le sy an inscrut Tam give you i. 7 will lars for this hundreds of de secret, and will disclose it to none.” “ Madame,” haughtily, " you forget that I ama famous woman’s-doctor, and that car fare to me. hundreds of dollars are as My fee for the secret I possess is fifty thousand dollars.”” check for the amount, and handed it to him. “And now name this val- Joyfully, she wrote now," she cried, * ley of seclusion, where I may truly rest, nor change my gown ten times a day.” With a proud smile of triumph, he “New York in summer!” Mrs, Wilson Woodrow. answered comicbooks.com