Life, 1909-01-28 · page 9 of 28
Life — January 28, 1909 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This LIFE magazine page satirizes marriage and gender roles through multiple cartoons and commentary. The main article debates whether wives should be "self-supporting," featuring quotes attributed to Mark Twain, Seneca, Thomas à Kempis, and others about justice, independence, and marriage. The cartoons illustrate the debate visually: one shows a man standing on a platform addressing a crowd labeled "Campaign Orator," suggesting politicians speak empty words about marriage and women's roles. Another depicts "A Drone" — a man appearing idle or dependent. The satirical point appears to be that contemporary marriage debates were filled with rhetoric and platitudes from famous figures, while the actual question of women's economic independence in marriage remained contentious and unresolved in early 20th-century America.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
yin HUSTLE *LIFE: Shots at Truth A. DRONE “There is not a parallel of latitude but thinks it would have been the equator if it had had its rights."—Mark Twain. “Justice, like lightning, ever should appear To few men’s ruin, but to all men’s fear.”. Should Wives be Self-Supporting ? HOULD wives be self-supporting? Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman thinks they should. We are tending, she says, to- ward the higher marriage, which requires a 1 grown woman, who is no one’s property or servant, to be self-supporting and proudly independent. Go to, Mrs, Perkins Gilman: that's not so. Proud independence between husband and wife is not at all conducive to ideal mar- riage. On the contrary, it is conducive to activity in the divorce courts, Mutual inter- dependence suits the marriage state much better, and it is in such interdependence that most married folks who live together get Any dead fish to swim up.” wenam. along. That a woman should not be en- tirely dependent on her husband for money is an advantage to both of them. The cus tom of giving dowries to girls and securing to them a reasonable degree of pecuniary independence is a mighty good custom (though subject to sordid abuses), and one which will doubtless grow in this country as wealth increases here and our civiliza- tion gets settled habits. But by far the greater part of our American marriages are made without dowries, and they do pretty well. Marriage is already too much delayed among our professional vorkers because the man has first to learn to make a living. If women could not marry until they were self- SSKONAN can float down a stream; but it takes a live one oo “What are words but empty sounds, that break and scatter in the air and make no real impression.""—Thomas a’ Kempis. supporting things would be worse than they are. It is a great advantage to most families to have some degree of leisure secured to the wife, and at least to have her relieved of the need of going out to work. Professor Palmer relates that his wife gave up a salary of $1,000 of her own to share his salary of $3,500 (we quote from memory), and be- come dependent upon him for support. And yet, Mrs, Gilman, that was a pretty good marriage. Don’t you think, ma'am, that the pros- perity of marriage depends more on the folks who undertake it and their sentiments toward one another, than on “proud inde- pendence"? comicbooks.com