Life, 1909-01-07 · page 29 of 60
Life — January 7, 1909 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This *Life* magazine page contains three satirical pieces: **"The Old Fashioned Night Shirt"** argues nostalgically that traditional nightshirts were superior to modern pajamas—more comfortable, democratic (a bishop looked no better than a prize fighter in one), and morally elevating. The satire mocks both Victorian prudishness and the new leisure-class fashion adopted from Newport society. **"Why Not Sue Mr. Gilder?"** references Richard Watson Gilder, a poet and social critic who publicly condemned the Trinity Corporation (which owned tenements in New York) for housing poor people in squalid conditions. The piece sarcastically suggests Gilder's harsh criticism must be justified, implying the Trinity Corporation's excuses for tenement conditions were inadequate—a dig at wealthy institutions ignoring urban poverty. **"Modern Devotion"** (bottom right illustration) satirizes shallow religiosity: a deacon prays for spiritual connection but asks God for an automobile instead, while his wife wants one with comfortable back seats—reducing faith to material comfort-seeking.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
*-LIFE: 29 The Old Fashioned Night Shirt No gentleman will wear ing but pajamas.—Men’s fashions. WeResteraLicy T the close of the Civil War the practice of wearing pajamas had not become general. It was only with the rise of Newport that this unhappy custom originated. It is a pity. There was a freedom about the old fashioned night shirt, with its flowing tails, that somehow or other seemed to add to a man’s moral stature. It is true that this garment was never beautiful. But then, it was never intended to be Men do not pace the street at night clad only in nightshirts, unless they have been rudely awakened by the cry of fire. Every man should, when by himself, have the privilege of making himself as unlovely and comfortable as possible. Pajamas do not accomplish this. They constrict the waist line, and when in bed give one the embarrassing feeling of being dressed for the evening. The old fashioned night shirt had the grand quality of reducing every man to the same level as his fellow creatures. A bishop, accout’red in one, was no better looking than a prize fighter. And is there any man who has been through the expe- rience of standing in one of these garments before the fur- nace fire, shoveling in coal in the dead of night, who does not recall with almost blinding tears the heights of moral sublimity he has reached upon those occasions? , 35th v. is the Inquisition—the Hell—of Science. All the cruelty wh human—or rather the inhuman—heart is capable of inflicting, is in this one word. Below this there is no depth. — R. G. Ingersoll. Why Not Sue Mr. Gilder ? ICHARD WATSON GILDER, displeased with the pur- pose of the Trinity Corporation to close old St. John’s church, addresses the respectable gentlemen of that corpora- tion as— Guardians of a holy trust Who, in your rotting tenements, Housed the people, till the offense Rose to the Heaven of the Just— So, and more of the same, in a copy of verses communi- cated to the New York Evening Post. Mr. Gilder is a pretty plain spoken poet. Moreover, he has expert knowledge of New York tenement houses, includ- MODERN. DEVOTION ing those owned by the Trinity Corporation. He would The Deacon: 0 LORD, SEXD SOMETHING—SEND THE POWER hardly have slashed out so vehemently at so respectable a TO DRAW ME MORE TO THE MEETING HOUSE—SEND AN AUTOMO- concern if he had not had satisfactory reasons for believing ite—— that its excuses for the conditions of its tenement-houses were The Wife: ves—one OF THEM WITH THE COMFY SEATS AT not good. THE BACK. comicbooks.com