Life, 1910-09-01 · page 15 of 48
Life — September 1, 1910 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical "fortune teller" feature mocking both astrology and early-20th-century gender stereotypes. For each September birth date (1-7), it offers humorous predictions about the reader's future spouse, with accompanying portraits. The satire targets: **Gender roles**: Women are defined by appearance, domestic skills, or temperament (petulant, talkative, aesthetic). Men are characterized by profession or habits (clergyman, dyspeptic, dressy). **Class anxiety**: References to stock speculation, servants ("hiring cooks"), chafing-dish cooking, and hotel living reflect concerns about maintaining middle-class status. **Marriage pessimism**: Nearly all predictions suggest incompatibility or frustration—jealous husbands, wives with annoying habits, couples constantly at odds. The joke assumes readers recognize these as exaggerated but relatable marital stereotypes of the era. It's gentle mockery of both matrimony and the pseudoscience of fortune-telling itself.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIFE> Life's Infallible Fortune Teller If you were born on “ea Your future wife Your future husband = will be religious but interested in SEPt. will be a sandy-complexioned poet stock speculations. You will be 1 In your home beautiful thoughts will expected to put up the margins. be more frequent than square meals If you were born on “ea Your future wife Your future husband ney” will be pretty but petulant, with a+ Sept. will think you are flirting with every tendency to hair-pulling. DB} man you meet. Your married life ally you will wear a toupee. will not be monotonous. If you were born on “wa Your future wife Your future husband will be such a good talker that you SCPt. will bea chronic dyspeptic, and you will often wonder why dumbness 3 will spend your life in intelligence wasn't made contagious. offices hiring cooks. If you were born on “ea Your future wife Your future husband a will becao’ardent’automobilist, Ie SCPts wit be-aiman wuch given’to dress, will be to your advantage to insure 4 who will insist on your wearing her heavily against accident. gowns of his selection. If you were born on “ea Your future wife G Your future husband will have a fiery temper anda good SEPt. will be a great traveler. You will voice. You will encourage her to ~— grow to hate the sight of even a sing. street-car, If you were born on a Your future wife Your future husband os will Rave: many. relatives‘who are SCDPts -will'be-a popular clergyman, and good visitors, Your declining years ~——_you will be envied or hated by every will be passed in a hotel. woman in his Bock. If you were born on Your future wife Your future husband = will think she is aesthetic. Your Sept. will insist on cooking in a chafing- house will be full of junk. 7 dish, and many a night you will from choice go to bed hungry. comicbooks.com