Life, 1907-12-05 · page 32 of 68
Life — December 5, 1907 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents a humorous domestic narrative illustrated by a central cartoon figure. The text describes two gentlemen (Mr. Shaler and Mr. Peters) dining at Miss Waters's home, where they secretly bond over their mutual dismay at her cooking—unappetizing soup, a tough turkey, canned vegetables, and an inedible pie. The accompanying illustration depicts "Santa Jekyll" and "Santa Hyde"—a visual pun on Robert Louis Stevenson's *Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde* (1886). The dual-natured Santa figure holds both children's gifts and kitchen implements, suggesting the contrast between Santa's cheerful public persona and the domestic reality of poor cooking or household management. The caption labels him as both "the children's friend" and "the grown-up's saint," emphasizing the moral duality. The satire mocks both poor domestic cooking and the polite social fiction of appreciating bad food—a common early-20th-century household scenario where guests suffered silently through inadequate meals.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
680 in detecting his own image, reflected from its oleaginous sur- face. Both gentlemen took up their soup-spoons. men tasted. “T never did care much for soup,” said Mr, Shaler. “Nor I,” said Mr. Peters. Miss Waters’s face fell. “Awful sorry, Sarah,” said Mr. Shaler. “It will do you good,” persisted Miss Waters, anxiously. “It'll warm you up.” Both gentlemen looked at each other. In the face of what they were already beginning to regard as a common enemy they had come Both gentle- to a sort of unarticulated under- standing. Each felt sure in his heart—and in his stomach—that that soup was in too unskimmed a condi- tion to digest. “We'll save up for the rest,” said Mr. Shaler, pushing his plate away. “Yes, we will,” said Mr. Peters, doing the same. Miss Waters bustled about. Presently she brought in a piebald turkey, almost black in spots where it had been liberally basted and pale in depres- sions where it hadn’t been, SAX Following thiscame anar- ray of vegetableson plain TN whitedishes with nicked VEZ edges. Most of them NSS bore that fatal prison pal- lorwhich betrayed the fact that they had served their time in tin cans. Mr. Shaler got up to carve, while Miss Waters dis- appeared into the kitchen. After awhile Mr. Shaler tumed to his guest. “Sam,” he said, solemnly, “I'll bet a bottle of wine this is one of the toughest turkeys God ever made.” Mr. Peters lowered his voice in reply. “Tt might be better,” he whispered; “but the blamed thing isn’t cooked properly. It’s the stove—you see there’s no uniform heat in it.” “Tt’s the same stove that was in the house when we were boys.” “T don’t care. That's the trouble.” “Well, never mind. I’m looking forward to that pumpkin pic, anyway.” “You gentlemen,” said Miss Waters, fifteen minutes later, as she removed the turkey and the vegetables, “ain’t got the appertites of sparrows.” Then she brought on the pumpkin pie and the coffee-pot Mr. Shaler cut two large pieces—with some difficulty. As Miss Waters disappeared again he said impres- i to Mr. Peters: “Sam, can you cat this pie?” SANTA JEKYLL, THE CHILDR SANTA HYDE, THE Grows "5 FRIEND, AND Sega P'S SAINT comicbooks.com