Life, 1910-08-18 · page 15 of 36
Life — August 18, 1910 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents **marital advice through satirical lists**, a common early-20th-century humor format. The top illustration shows a couple at the seaside with a wrecked boat—the caption "Thy Voyages Are Over, But Not Thy Usefulness" suggests marriage as a completed journey that continues through domestic life. The page's centerpiece lists **fourteen marital "errors"** from each spouse's perspective. The humor operates through **gender role satire**: husbands are mocked for financial control, neglecting praise, and working too hard; wives are mocked for excessive questioning, nagging, overspending on appearance, and poor housekeeping. The small cartoon labeled "MAL-DE-MERRSCHAUM" (a pun on "mal de mer"—seasickness) depicts a disheveled figure, likely representing the miserable married man. The satire targets **bourgeois marriage conventions** of the era, where husbands controlled money and whereabouts while wives managed domestic details. Both genders are presented as frustrating—the joke being that marriage itself is inevitably problematic, yet people continue it anyway (hence "not thy usefulness").
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A 2 progress of religion is the history of heretics. LL that glitters is not necessarily brass MAL-DE-MERRSCHAUM THY VOYAGES ARE OVER, BUT NOT THY USEFULNESS A Husband's Fourteen Errors in Life AS SEEN BY WIM T° tell her how to run her club. To bank his name. To expect her to like his female rela tives. To forget to praise her. To expect her to be grown up To expect to have the last word. To take her ously. To forget that she will change her mind. To let her open his letters To borrow her umbrella To get mad because his bed is not tucked in at the foot. To tell her how his mother used to cook. To hesitate to tell her where he is go- ing and where he has been ‘To work for her so hard that he has no time to devote to her. money in her opinions too seri- A Wife's Fourteen Errors in Life AS SEEN BY WER 'O ask a man where he is going when he goes out To ask him where he has been when he comes back To tell him what she would do if she were in his place To tell him everything, and thus re- veal her limitations. To ask him to put on her rubbers. To allow his stock of handkerchiefs and socks to get low. To buy bargain neckties To tell him that he is good look- ing To expect to have the last word To let him know how old she is To tell him what her mother says. To allow him to edit her letters. To economize at the expense of her personal appearance. To expect him to like her best friend's husband. comicbooks.com