Life, 1909-09-16 · page 10 of 32
Life — September 16, 1909 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes **wealthy women's social etiquette and weekend visiting customs**. The text mocks the elaborate politeness required when hostesses receive guests, noting that bachelor visitors now face exhausting competition and should thank their hosts with written notes. The main cartoon depicts a woman with a baby carriage greeting visitors at a massage parlor, humorously suggesting that wealthy women's leisure activities have become more vigorous and health-focused. The bottom series titled **"The Melting Iceberg"** appears to be an unrelated photographic sequence showing someone in water, possibly documenting an actual iceberg melting or a stunt. The page primarily targets the **affectations and rituals of wealthy socialites**, poking fun at their increasingly demanding social expectations and modern health trends.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
374 main preternaturally affable and polite for such an apparently interminable period of time In connection with week-end visits, too, been a marked It was—up to a few years ago—deemed comme it faut for male visitors to write their hostess a “ bread and butter "” letter; but that desirable and house-broken bachelors have grown so alarmingly gun- shy and the competition in fash jonable week-ends has become so relent- less and exterminating the weary hostess can hardly expect to receive any such Indeed it should devolve upon her to write a note to all her guests, ture, thanking them there has recently change in social procedure. missives. just after their de at Pu We to mask it; For if you are caught with the goods They'll put your laugh in a basket. Willie Porcupine: Goon mMorntxe, DROPPED LN TO GET for having condescended to visit her. It is de rigueur that such let- ters should be scrupulously polite in tone, no matter what diabolical outrages her guests may have committed during their stay under her roof. As there is a great deal of curiosity among well-bred people concerning such nice points of deportment as these, we are glad 10 be in a position to quote a 1 letter of this kind—a letter fr no less rich and fashionable a lady than Mrs. Madison Park, dated at Westbury, cordially mo THE MELTING ICEBERG PROFESSO: MY FRIEND AND I OUR BACKS MASSAGED. MAVE JUST Long Istand, and addressed to that pop- ular young bachelor, Mr. Lexington Lenox, at the Union Club in New York: My dear Mr. Lenox: You were exceedingly down in our car and pa fleeting visit. implore you gracious to run us that all too Madison and I can only n to ask yourself down and, anticipating such a delightful sur- prise. I beg leave to enclose two return tickets to Westbury—one for yourself and one for your servant. (In éase you cannot make use of them they can easily be converted into cash at the Thirty- fourth Street ticket office.) . / comicbooks.com