Life, 1908-06-04 · page 13 of 44
Life — June 4, 1908 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct pieces: an illustration and accompanying fiction. **The illustration** ("The Right of Way") depicts a woman in a long dress standing on railroad tracks facing an oncoming locomotive. It satirizes a woman's powerlessness in marriage through the metaphor of inevitable collision—she cannot choose her direction or escape her fate, much like her lack of agency in selecting where to live after marriage. **The fiction pieces** below expand this theme. "The Lady and the Choice" shows a newlywed couple debating where to settle; the husband dismisses her preferences entirely, asserting complete control. "The Reason" comments on male politicians' unsuitability for office, suggesting incompetence based on gender parallels the marital power imbalance. Together, these pieces critique early-20th-century women's legal and social subordination in marriage and public life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Lady and the Choice “ TUST name the place, darling!” The young husband, throwing down a package of time-tables, gazed fondly at his youthful bride. They had been married but six short months and the trousseau was still doing good work. “Yes,” he continued, “wherever you desire to go on a vacation will suit me —north, south, east or west, sea or mountain?” “Do you really mean it?” she asked? “Indeed I do.” “You do not wish to be consulted?” “T wish only for your happiness.” “And I can go anywhere I want?” “Anywhere.” Bursting into tears, she buried her face in her hands. “Alas!” she murmured, “‘that it is in THE RIGHT OF WAY your power to thwart me so. Why don’t you select the place?” “Thwart you! Me select the place? I do not understand!” he exclaimed, A LEAP FROM THE CADBIES’ CALENDAR astonished. “Dearest, am I not yielding to you in every way?” “Yes, that’s just it,” she moaned. “Ah! if you only would be determined to go somewhere, so that I could make you go somewhere else. What's the use of being married under these circum- stances?” “But don’t you’—he asked, won- deringly—for he was as yet very young, “want to go where—you want to go?” And she replied, haughtily, “No!” The Reason “TTOW did the Hon. Thomas Rott manage to be sent back to the legislature?” “Oh, as he had been a member of that body for two terms, it was generally considered that he was not good for anything else.” comicbooks.com