Life, 1907-11-07 · page 17 of 50
Life — November 7, 1907 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine satirizes early 20th-century American anxieties about rising costs and social change. **"Necessities"** mocks wealthy concerns disguised as hardships: Havana cigars, champagne, and Wall Street speculation are presented as "necessities" now beyond reach. The satire cuts deeper—divorce costs, appendicitis treatments, and "other men's wives" are listed alongside luxuries, conflating moral and economic decline. The punchline warns that continued inflation will force society into "respectable lives," implying that respectability is itself an undesirable luxury. **"Cookery"** jokes about marital tension: a wife demands her husband treat her with constant consideration and expense; he refuses, claiming he "didn't marry a cook"—suggesting she married him for maintenance, not romance. **"Statistical"** ridicules the apocryphal Washington-slept-here tourism phenomenon, calculating the implausible total sleep hours required. The silhouette illustration labeled "A Critical Moment in the Game" depicts a social negotiation among four figures, likely representing the tension between appearance and reality in courtship or business dealings that the text explores throughout.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Necessities HERE can be no doubt about the fact that necessities are going up. Havana cigars are much higher than they were. Good whisky is dearer. ‘The price of champagne apparently remains the same, but this is only ap- parent. The corkage is more, the tips are more, and anything that goes with it is much higher than it was. High living has almost doubled. It costs twice as much to go on even the. simplest bat than it did. An ordinary flirtation, leading to nothing at all, has increased nearly 50 per cent. in cost. Speculation is higher than it was. It is getting beyond the means of all ex- cept multimillionaires to gamble in Wall Street. Divorces are higher. Even the com- A CRITICAL MOMENT IN THR GAME monest kind of a divorce is more than the average man can afford Appendicitis—which at first was possi- ble to people in moderate circumstances. is now something we can only dream of. Hot-house violets and grapes, other men’s wives, desirable scandals, French chauffeurs, and, in fact, all necessities recognized as such, will soon be out of the reach of all. Indeed, if we keep on, we shall soon all be reduced to leading respectable lives. Cookery “NZOU don’t treat me with nice con- sideration, anticipate my every want, provide me with whatever is de- signed to make life pleasant, regardless of expense, betray a vigilant solicitude for my comfort, a tender respect for my feelings, an absorbing interest in my hap- piness,” complained the wife. “Certainly not,” replied the husband; “T didn’t marry a cook.” Statistical T HAS been estimated that if all the beds said to have been slept in by George Washington had really been so honored the Father of His Country must have spent some 72 years, 8 months, 17 days, 13 hours and 41} minutes in slum ber. THE public plays no return dates in hero worship. “Y iS, sir! I tell you the honest m: has nothing to fear!” “Ts that the reason the whole country is so frightened ?” comicbooks.com .