Life, 1910-05-26 · page 17 of 44
Life — May 26, 1910 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct satirical pieces: **Top Section:** Three sketches titled "Representative College Athletes 20 Years After Graduation" mock the decline of former athletes. The illustrations show men who were once athletic now depicted as sedentary or physically deteriorated—one slouching on a bench, one bent over digging, one hunched with a tool. The joke satirizes the false promise that college athletics builds lasting vigor; these "representative" graduates appear physically diminished by middle age. **Bottom Section:** "Some Rules for a Wife's Guidance" is tongue-in-cheek marital advice that actually mocks wives' behavior through exaggeration. The rules—encouraging excessive spending, chronic lateness, needless quarreling, and repeatedly nagging about minor faults—present a satirical portrait of an annoying spouse. The accompanying cartoon showing a woman admiring a man in a mirror labeled "Football" sarcastically suggests football supposedly develops "manly qualities," ironically undermining the premise by showing vanity. Together, these pieces satirize both the false claims of athletics and gender relations of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
REPRESENTATIVE COLLEGE ATHLETES 20 YEARS AFTER GRADUATION Some Rules for a Wife's Guidance F your husband comes home tired at uw night, and wants to throw himself on EC the sofa after dinner and rest, don’t let xe him. Insist on his putting on evening + clothes and going somewhere. He needs a change, not rest. Encourage his buying new clothes in every way in your power. This will al- ways furnish you with an excuse to do the same. If you have an engagement to meet him at a given place at a given hour, remember that promptness is an invalu able asset and never be more than twenty minutes or half an hour late. Do not burst into tears ever, unless you feel that it is absolutely unneces sary. Have a scrap with him at regular in- tervals, in order not to let the good old home traditions die out. If you have passed middle age, and have lost the charm of you insist that your husband kiss you when, after a visit away from home, you alight from a railway train. If he has some little imperfection which annoys him, the rule is to re- mind him of it six times, in quick suc- cession, then skip three, then six, and SHOWING THE SUPERIORITY OF FOOTBALL IN THE pEVELOP- so on. MENT OF THE “ MANLY QUALITIES '*