Life, 1910-01-27 · page 15 of 36
Life — January 27, 1910 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes a fraudulent "Husbands' Correspondence Bureau"—a fake matrimonial service that claims to "put your wife completely under your control" for a fee, exploiting marital discord. The cartoon's joke: a woman mistakes the Bureau's rapid-talking brother for the Bureau operator himself, creating awkward moments of confusion. The visual shows elegantly dressed figures; the "fatal resemblance" creates comedic misidentification. The text mocks both the Bureau's predatory business model (extracting money from "foolish men") and its defensive response to women's suffrage activists. A "Committee on Public Affairs" warning attacks the Bureau for undermining women's rights, while the Bureau's owner brazenly defends his operation as morally justified. The satire targets early-1900s gender anxiety: men's fears about marital control, women's emerging political power through suffrage, and exploitative businesses preying on relationship insecurity. The "Great White Way" image below remains unclear without additional context.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE FATAL RESEMBLANCE THE DISHCP’S MORE RAPID EROTHER 1S THE CAUSE OF SOME AWKWARD MOMENTS injury. We came across one of these circulars the other day, No matter what your circumstances are, if your wife is give it for what it is worth: giving you any trouble communicate with us at once. Qpen TO ALL WIVES! WARNING! day and night. A trial course free. 1 Ou attention has recently been called to a, miserable specitnen. of We will put your wife completely under your control im man whe. ‘a disreputable business called Husbands’ Corre: ; spondence: Bureau, and who ie engaged, ur ec specious guise of one month and make her glad that she is there, or we will doing good, in undermining our cause’ in every way possible, He promptly refund your money, Call, write or wire ms to treat cases of marital trouble, and extracts large. sums as , from foolish men, who have come to depend upon him. Huspanns’ Corxesronpexca Berray. le is doing our cause much h by his hes about us, ard all women whe have at heart the sacred privilege of voting should fieht him to the bitter end. Tue Committer on Pustic Arrairs. We expected this, of course. We knew that we should be understood. “But we are prepared for the worst and offer the following challenge : We invite any suffragette into our office to look over our books. When it is known the good we are doing, the happy families we are making throughout the land; when it is un- derstood that the happiness of women as well as men is our role object, and that countless thousands rejoice in our work, why, then, our enemies will be silenced. It is true that we receive a modest stipend for our efforts. We have to live as well as the rest of the world. But our terms are so absurdly reasonable as to be within the reach of all. “THE GREAT WHITE way”? comicbooks.com