Life, 1910-06-16 · page 16 of 44
Life — June 16, 1910 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a mock "going out of business" notice from a fictional "Husbands' Correspondence Bureau"—a satirical jab at the women's suffrage movement of the early 20th century. The cartoon shows a man lying prone outside the bureau while other figures (appearing to be suffragists with megaphones and campaign materials) celebrate nearby, captioned "What will become of them?" The satire presents suffragists as having destroyed husbands' livelihoods by making wives politically active. The text claims that when women become suffragists, their husbands lose interest in self-improvement because "there is no cure anyway"—a cruel implication that wives becoming politically empowered is inherently destructive to marriage. The bureau's closure is blamed on woman suffrage "practically killing our business." This represents anti-suffrage propaganda portraying women's political activism as a threat to traditional marital and social structures.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WHAT WILL BECOME OF THEM? Husbands’ Branches Every:chere, Including Paris, Constantinople and Philadelphia, are reluctantly compelled to announce the suspension of our business. We hope it may be temporary, but we fear the worst. We have been struggling against heavy odds for some time—much longer than we personally de- sired—but we did it out of loyalty to a small body of faithful husbands who have still clung to us. To these old-customers, many of them grown gray, and still suffering; many of them indeed incurable, but for whom we have been able to offer measures of temporary relicf, we cannot say enough to show our friendship and our gratitude. We shudder when we think what will become of them without our help. God help them! They will have to do the best they can. The principal cause of our retirement from business is due to our sympathetic nature, Wherever we saw a suffering husband we placed all the resources of this office immediately at his disposal, determined to alleviate his condition if pos- sible. Neither did we require our patrons to pay in advance. The result is that we have several thousand unpaid accounts ‘on our books, and against men who have been permanently up their heads, defying their wives and having a grand time. We bear them no malice. We are glad that they are happy. It has ever been the curse of true genius that it never could collect its bills, and has even had a hard time of it to get payments on account. We only hope that our own creditors will have the same kindly feelings toward us that we have toward some of our own delinquents. This is a hard world, full of care. We ought not to make the burden too great for others to bear We are here only for a short time and then we are gone Our creditors will eventually share the same fate that we shall. Let them bear this in mind, and not think of us in an uncharitable manner. The chairman of our Entertainment Committee wishes to announce that he will be glad to take out select parties of husbands day or night. He makes a specialty of the Tender- loin. The young and handsome blonde in charge of our type writing department is open to an engagement. She has a vivacious disposition and a vast experience and we should like to sce her well placed. She would make an admirable affinity. Another cause which has hurt our business, we regret to say, has been the rise of the woman suffrage movement in this country. As we have already announced, we are neutral about woman suffrage. We have been immensely attracted toward some of our most prominent suffragists and believe that we could love them just as much as if they were young cured, who are now holdin Correspondence Bureau ‘0 Connection With Any Other Establishment, and innocent. Although they have practically killed our busi- ness we feel kindly toward them. The way in which woman suffrage has hurt our business is as follows: Every husband, no matter what his wife may be or how she treats him, is always ready to be cured. Nay, he is anxious, and will place himself in our hands at once; but if his wife is a suffragist he doesn’t care whether he is treated or not. He knows there is no cure anyway, and he becomes immediately indifferent to his own fate. As yet we have been unable, in spite of our vast experience, to cure suffrageitis, The result of this is that many of our best cus- tomers abandoned us when their wives took the stump. We shall continue to be called in consultation in a private apacity. Although we are not prosperous, any case that we can help will find as much sympathy and advice as we can give. The following letter is one among many: Dear Sin: I have received the news of your temporary (let us hope) retirement with great sadness. You are a hundred years ahead of the times. The next generation will be erecting monuments to you. In the meantime, Ict me assure you that thousands of cured husbands nourish in their hearts a great love and gratitude for what you have done for them. If there is anything we can do for you, except lend you money, please count on my wife and myself.’ Just at present we are a little short owing to the high prices. H tT We retire from the field full of pride and with the calm assurance that we have worked for our country’s best in- terest. We are glad to announce, however, that our Paris AS IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND THEY ARE OURS comicbooks.com