Life, 1906-02-15 · page 9 of 32
Life — February 15, 1906 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The page features an illustration titled "Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practice to Deceive" — a woman in an elaborate dress caught in a spider's web, likely symbolizing entrapment. The text discusses three brief items: "A Buccaneeress" (about a woman arrested for singing while operating a wheeled vehicle), "Divorce" (addressing 1,100 abandoned wives seeking legal remedies in New York), and a "Tourist" joke about traveling through Pittsburgh. The divorce section is the substantive satire, criticizing the difficulty divorced women face obtaining legal relief and support, and lamenting the "uno guild" — apparently referring to divorce laws' inadequacy in protecting abandoned spouses. The overall commentary critiques women's legal vulnerability in marriage dissolution.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“OM, WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE WHEN FIRST WE PRACTISE TO DECEIVE.” A Buccaneeress. divorced and seek helpmeets. There who rail at other States for their lax- HEN sreiced howassinging: can be little doubt that every one of ity, and demand a uniform national di- As they drifted on the bay, the eleven hundred fugitive husbands — vorce law me uniformity is un- To the man whom she had wheedled is smashing the seventh commandment doubtedly to be greatly desired, but it From the other girls away. to atoms, at a safe distance, but there is safe to say that when it comes, it ¢ judge said, ** Law, young lady, no relief for the deserted wives, will take the form, not of bringing Your punishment decrees, ss they can bring legal evidence — other States into line with New York's For you boldly practised piracy of infidelity. The cruelty that forbids code, but of rendering New York's SLL, Litchfield, these women the comfort and protec- laws more liberal. Once real- Di tion of divorce and remarriage, and ized, perhaps the churchmen will re- EVOICe. mits them to the incessant tempta- li sh their crusade. s, all LEVEN hundred wives abandoned tion to enjoy the privile; — y by their husbands appealed this mony without its legal sanction, is an TO P: What a long tunnel this acon last year for aid to an East Side char- inhuman cruelty of enormous total. Yet i and ity in New York City, According to it is the cruelty of the churchmen and Brakeman: This ain't no tunnel; , it the law of the State, they may not be the “neo guid.” It is these people we're goin’ through Pittsburg. oni reak- stamp. comicbooks.com