Life, 1910-06-09 · page 9 of 40
Life — June 9, 1910 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes early 20th-century courtship customs and modern automobiles. The top cartoon shows a car breakdown during a date, with the caption "THE MODERN WAY HAS ITS DRAWBACKS"—the pun plays on both literal mechanical failure and the social awkwardness of romantic situations interrupted by technical problems. The text mocks courtship as an "inflammable" period full of exaggerated behaviors. The accompanying photograph "THE CHAPERON" shows a woman chaperoning a couple, reflecting the era's strict social conventions requiring supervised interactions between unmarried people. The joke targets tension between traditional courtship rituals and modern technology—automobiles were new and unreliable, making them both liberating (private space) and problematic (mechanical failures) for courting couples.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
COURTING THE MODERN WAY MAS ITS DRAWRACKS berth much more comfortable Courtship and Marriage Interested Them Me n't consider it.” Cc" RTSHIP is a highly inflammable “7 HAVE here,’ says the inventor to “Well, the second plan makes the by-product of love; another ev the capitalists, “two plans for radi- car uncomfortable, but it enables it to more dangerous distillation being Mar- cal changes in sleeping cars." f as many more passengers, riage. Courtship is the beautiful period Yes? murmur the capitalists. of supposed safety just before the ex “This plan increases the space given “Give us the complete details, with plosion, Marriage is the blackened, 1o each passenger and makes the estimates of cost."" burned and charred remains after the holocaust Courtship ts to a woman a more or less. lengthy period of moonlight, hammocks, diamonds, dinners. dances, theatres, flowers and Huyler’s best in five-pound boxes. Realizing that this cannot go on forever, no matter how much of a good thing he may he, she veers it around to marriage just before it begins to wane, ne period to a man means con- iness as to her constancy, sleepless nights, undue extravagance with her, the practice of personal economies and a general appearance of ninity As soon as the marriage has been ac- complished both breathe sighs of relief ind begin to see things—said things heing made up of defects hitherto kept carefully guarded, such as snoring, tem- per, physical imperfections, laziness, sel- fishness, ete : The long courtship is pitiful; it is the hope deferred that makes the heart sick. A short courtship is equally pitiful if it be a case of élope preferred, for it will make the heart still sicker. THE CHAPERON comicbooks.com