Life, 1909-12-02 · page 29 of 80
Life — December 2, 1909 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes rudeness and poor customer service in retail establishments. A hat-shop proprietor treats a customer dismissively, refusing to show merchandise and telling him to choose from the shelves himself. The customer recognizes the proprietor as the same man who worked at a theater box office, where he was equally rude when selling tickets. The joke's "tit for tat" point: the customer reveals he's the *same person* the proprietor was discourteous to previously, using that experience to shame him into better behavior. The satire criticizes how service workers—particularly in early 20th-century retail—often treated customers with contempt rather than helpfulness. The accompanying illustrations labeled "Novelties in Men's Hosiery" and "Fire Flies" appear to be unrelated satirical advertisements or filler content typical of Life magazine's format.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Tit for Tat CITIZEN entered a Fifth Avenue hat store and asked to sce a hat. “What kind of a hat do you wish?" said the proprietor, who happencd to wait on him, “I am not quite sure." The proprictor surveyed him super- ciliously. “Well, sir, you ought to be old enough to know. There are the hats on their shelves. I'm not going to pull down my whole stock.”* THANK HEAVEN FOR THIS HIGH PRESSURE! NOVELTIES IN MEN'S HOSIERY The prospective customer gazed at him and then, purple with rage, turned around without a word and started to leave the store. At the door the proprietor stopped him. “Wait a minute,” he said. “Last night I went into a theatre to buy a ticket. You were there in the box-office selling them. I asked you for one. You replied in a surly way and asked me what I wanted. I requested you mildly to let me know what you had in the way of FIRE FLIES seats and then I would decide. And you said that I was old enough to know my own mind and that when I told you what I wanted you would sell me a ti Now, sir, having made my little exp! tion, won't you kindly come back? I shall be only too happy to place before you every hat in my establishment for your courteous selection.” SWEEPING statement—the vacuum cleaner’s bill SAVE IT AT ANY cosT! comicbooks.com