Life, 1909-07-08 · page 9 of 28
Life — July 8, 1909 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Content:** This page contains two satirical pieces about office life and rug sales in early 20th-century New York. **"A Grand Season for Rug Sales"** mocks the carpet industry's aggressive marketing during summer, when offices supposedly need cleaning. The satire suggests rugs are sold repeatedly through manufactured urgency and questionable sales tactics tied to current events (references to Turkish conflicts and Constantinople). **"The Office Boy"** humorously describes a young office worker's thankless duties: maintaining typewriters, delivering packages, and running errands. The accompanying cartoon shows the boy exhausted, illustrating his low status. **"Those Six-Month Nights"** is a brief joke about a husband staying late at a club, with his wife sarcastically noting his absence. The overall tone reflects period workplace humor about clerical labor and commercial excess.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
UGHT ON THE SUBJECT A Grand Season for Rug Sales New York, Ju: mand seems to be y Paper. pet and rug de and more orders are reported.— O wonder! The rugs must be pretty nearly cleaned out When were there ever such opportunities son just closed or closing has hereabou acrifice sales as the s rded! The stitution for Pers the proctam were repeated sales on the threats of a con- son the rise of the Y on of a const ion for Turkey, sales at awful sacrifice on the reaction inst ted by the wicked / sales of crucl urgency on the capture onstantinople the Salonica troops, sale on the hanging of the chi eunuch, more sales on the Abdana massacres, more st the fuss over Boznia and Herzegovina, and finally waves and billows of sales all the way up Fifth avenue on the widen of the roadway nd the readjustment ic basen trances. o wonder “ more orde Unless rugs are are reported.”” € stocks and can be sold repeatedly every day, the revolu- tion, massacre and widening sales must have left the market pretty. bare. The Olfice Boy HE. office boy is an institution peculiar to modern times His duty is to fall in love with the typewriter, put the ink in the mucilage bottles, put the wrong letters in different envelopes, deliver packages and important documents an hour ‘or so after they are expected and promised, be late in the morning, say fresh things to pe ) come in on busi ness, and whistle between times. On summer afternoons, any one who wishes to close study of the office boy will find him at any baseba ne. The next morning he always comes down with crape on his ar Office boys heads of the firm those who roll their own ¢ ¢ of two kinds; those who eventually becom An office boy is born, not made IONTH NIGHTS DOES YOUR HUSRAND STAY AT THE CLUB LATE AT NIGHT? "? “WELL, RATHER, LAST NIGHT HE DIDN'T GET NOME TILL MALP-PAST FEBRUARY.’? comicbooks.com