Life, 1909-09-23 · page 10 of 28
Life — September 23, 1909 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes debates about Westernization in Japan. Editor Zumoto of the *Tokio Times* visits to discuss how American conveniences—particularly the "American wife"—are changing Japanese culture. The cartoon shows a man bowing before a woman in Western dress, labeled "When the Cook Votes," suggesting that adopting American customs threatens traditional Japanese gender hierarchies. The satire mocks anxieties that Japan's embrace of American lifestyle—from home conveniences to women's independence—will fundamentally alter Japanese identity. The implication is that allowing servants or women (represented by "the cook") greater autonomy or voting rights disrupts social order. The article presents Zumoto's argument that maintaining Japanese traditions while adopting American comforts is impossible.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Price of American Conveniences DITOR ZUMOTO, of the Tokio Times, is the latest foreign ob- server to look us over. He is sorry for the American husband, and very much impressed with the American wife. She seems to him remarkably fresh looking and handsome compared with her tired looking husband. He thinks she must be very charming— but expensive. The most expensive feature of American life, as our Tokio neighbor sees it, is the American wife Which recalls what the Wall banker said to the Broad Street t when they met at luncheon during the money famine in the late fall of 1907: said he, “what the devil of all the money? Have the women spent it all?” In . Mr. Zume n due time gets m body can afford... There are no old bachelors there, and old maids are very scarce. A man can support a family very comfortably in Japan, he says, on $1,000 a year, He likes that, and likes to see the Japanese clerk . every= Every- WHEN THE COOK VOTES marry on $25 a month and get on very well. And then he goes on to say how greatly the comfort of Japanese life will be increased by “copying the American home, with its wonderful conveniences,” and how the Japanese will become a stronger and’ hardier race as meat-cating, which is fast in- A MAN WITH HAIR ON MIS FACE 1S USUALLY A FAVORITE WITIE CITILDREN, THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT HIM THEY SEEM TO CLING To. creasing, becomes more and more a Japanese habit Yes, yes, Mr, Zumoto, dear sir, when you have in Japan the meat- eating habit, and all the American conveniences, how comfortably will it I be possible for a Japanese family to be maintained on $1,000 a year? If you propose that Japan shall live as the Americans live, Mr. Zumoto, you must prepare to pay the Ameri price, and see tired husbands in Tokio, you say just as New York, you do in When Paradise Quit DAM and Eve they had no Tariff In the days of long ago; He and She, they didn't care if Cotton goods were high or low wght knew they of speeches witty Touching lumber, hides and rice From a Ways and Means Committee— Wasn't it a Paradise! In that primal vale of beauty He was rich who owned a tree No one gave a fig for Du (Figs were entered duty- comicbooks.com