Life — March 18, 1909 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Our Husbands' Correspondence Bureau" This page satirizes early 20th-century marital advice and domestic instruction. The main illustration shows a whimsical aerial view of couples engaged in various activities—picnicking, flying, cycling—suggesting the "Young Husband Course" offered by the bureau. The text humorously instructs wives on deceiving their husbands about household incompetence. It advises women to hide cooking failures and financial ignorance while maintaining their husbands' confidence through calculated domesticity. The cartoon below features two gentlemen in top hats discussing a night out, with the caption suggesting one was unaware his wife went out—mocking the bureau's premise that wives should manage appearances. The satire targets both naive husbands and the commercialized "self-improvement" industry promising marital harmony through manufactured deception rather than honest communication.