Life, 1905-07-06 · page 18 of 44
Life — July 6, 1905 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the hypocrisies of American middle and upper-class life circa early 1900s. **"Inborn Inconsistencies"** is the main feature, cataloging contradictions in wealthy men and women: A man spends $3,000 on an automobile yet begrudges his wife cab fare; he orders expensive wines and clothes but scolds her over wasted dessert and eggs; he splurges $500 weekly on boats then obsessively hunts "economies" in household expenses. Similarly, "Winsome Woman" won't take a 50-cent cab home after spending $3 on theater tickets; she prides herself on honesty with children while lying to her husband; she despises thieves yet steals from her husband's pockets. **The cartoon jokes** below address contemporary concerns: First Robin and Second Robin discuss "horseless carriages" and other modern innovations. The "Patriot vs. Philanthropist" exchange satirizes selective charity—the philanthropist won't donate to July Fourth celebrations but will fund a "poor self-respecting person's" escape from town. The final panel jokes about confused communication between Jones and a burglar. The satire targets wealthy hypocrisy and the absurdities of new consumer culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Those Automobiles. Free end to end of a savage land, You * carry your life in the palm But, f ‘om side to side of a civilized st must sprint with your soul in th Inborn Inconsistencies. ERE MAN spends three thousand dollars for an automobile, and begrudges his to haul her fron ny the clutches of the grip. sists upon her wearing ) a last year’s hat XS He orders grouse, partridge or W pheasant fora quict dinner betwee wife a profession: He wishes he wns to be the latest nable mod- themselves, and ba gers her at table over the butter wasted by the children He opens a bottle of thirty-year-old Bur undy for her, and takes her to task for her e: avagance in desserts, He rent suits at the tailor’s, an next morning over the exgs used by the cook. He spends five hundred dot “the be ven diff 1 rails rs ina week's bout with s,7 and returns chastened and stingy to pore over the syroc S pass-book and hunt out possible economies. natince tickets, Wixsome Woatan spends three dollars for in a sude bi n shower, not even to save her new spring suit, can she bring herself to take a fifty-cent cab home. She invites some woman she wishes to impress to an ‘I luncheon, and discovering an error—on her side—of five cents in t bill, mentions it gleefully to the elaborate hy wom: , but not to the wa She prides herself on telling the truth to her little chil- dren, and declares to their father she can’t imagine how Johnnie caught cold, w forgot his le n she knows full we ings yesterday at she She hates and abhors a thief, but she goes through her husband's pockets in the dead of n ht and filches there- m a modest two-dollar bill ‘* which he will er miss."" She scorns to read so much asa postal card not addressed erself, but pr any open note found ummaging her lord and master’s pockets, whether the handwriting be feminine or masculine ances with avidity in She wishes her tradespeople to consider her the soul of jonor, and asks her milliner to tuck an extra five on the bill and give her the ready cash If, as ° Concord poct has told us,Consistency is the hob- little minds, let Mere Man and Winsome Woman clap their hands in glee. ‘They k glories in inconsiste xoblin « are on the road to great- heach, Alltrue greatness ness; itisa o-neck race wi Lee Risin IRST ROBIN: What are we coming to? Horseless car ria ! res, smokele yermless ba’ powder, Secoxp Rowix: Next thing we'll have wormless lawns -LIFE- What Is Really Needed. NTHUSIASTIC PATRIOT: [ suppose you will let me your name down for a contribution to the Fourth of July expenses Wise Pittaxturorist: No fund to provide means for poor } I'm willing to start a self-respecting persons to get out of town during the celebration what's a tip A tip, my son, is a small st nef money which >a man because you're afraid he won't like not aid for something you didn’t ask him to do. Jones (to burglar)? THROW UP YOUR HANDS! ER—NO—NO- KEEP THEM DOWN, T MEAN. comicbooks.com