Life — January 28, 1909 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Divine Service" — January 28, 1909 This satirical cartoon by Coley Phillips depicts a fashionably dressed woman with an enormous wide-brimmed hat, holding a cosmetic bottle and standing before a vanity table draped in an ornate basket-weave skirt. The title "Divine Service" is ironic wordplay—a religious term twisted to mock women's devotion to beauty rituals and personal grooming. The satire targets the era's conspicuous consumption and vanity culture among wealthy women, particularly their obsession with elaborate hats (a status symbol), cosmetics, and beauty preparation. By framing this as "divine service," the cartoon suggests women treat beauty maintenance with almost religious fervor, mocking both excessive materialism and the social pressures on women to maintain fashionable appearance.