Life, 1910-09-15 · page 26 of 40
Life — September 15, 1910 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes turn-of-the-century gender relations through a mock "bureau" offering courses to help husbands escape their wives' control. The satire targets **henpecked husbands**—men dominated by their wives—presenting absurd "solutions" like a "Husband Bench Show" at Madison Square Garden and a mail-order book of young women. The testimonials mock male fantasies: one husband brags he's now at his club avoiding home; another, over eighty, pursues "art" instead of marital duties. The satire ridicules both the desperation of controlled husbands and the predatory schemes exploiting them. The "Before/After" cartoon shows a shabby man transformed into a well-dressed gentleman—implying the bureau's promised transformation. This reflects genuine anxieties about **shifting domestic power dynamics** in early 20th-century America, where wives increasingly controlled household finances and social decisions, while husbands sought escape through clubs and establishments. The satire mocks male resentment of female authority while exposing the schemes targeting frustrated men.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
442 "LIFE Husbands’ Correspondence Bureau Branches in All Principal Cities, Including Paris and Constantinople. No Connection with Any Other Establishment. WING to our recent troubles—to ‘which, now that they are passed, we can refer with a light heart—we were obliged to take a necessary vacation, We have just returned, and find everything in apple-pie order. This leads us to say that summer is by far the best time for husbands to join the bureau. Coming! Our Husband Bench Show! It will open in Madison Square Garden in the autumn. We make this preliminary announcement now in order that everybody may have ample notice. Through our various courses of instruction (write or pamphlet) we have gradually built up a quiet body of effective husbands throughout the country. It is these men who will furnish the backbone of the Bench Show and enable us to put through such necessary reforms as will undoubtedly lift up all husbands onto another plane. In the meantime, we urge all who can avail themselves of the opportunity to begin our course at once. ‘0 matter how old you are, or how thoroughly under your wife’s control, do not despair until you have consulted us, To old husbands, by the way, we offer a special induce- ment, By sending five dollars’ initiation fee before the first of the month (onc month's preliminary instruction) we will BEFORE send our “Bevy of Beauties"? book. This book contains lovely pictures of all the young and handsome girls in the country under seventeen, gathered with unusual care by a hus- band in our employ who is himself over seventy-five and who knows the ficld. Here are a few testimonials, gathered at random in our morning's mail: Dear Bureau: _ Since taking your course of instruction Tam another wife is thoroughly cowed, and we are living within our in the first time Bless you forever. Kind Sir: I am ‘writing this from my club, which T have just joined, have only a minute, as Tam going to a vaudeville performance the boys, and shall wind up ata stag poker party, | My wife is sitting at home’ perfectly contented, thanks to your wonderful system. fT inclose check. Please put me down as a life member. Whoop! You: The Tramp: WELL, 10'S EASY TER SEE DEY AIN'T VEGETARIANS. Friex Since taking your course my wife believes everything I say Please send me at once your “ Bevy of Beauties.” I am going to devote myself to art for the rest of my life. Although over eighty, Tam enjoying the best of health, thanks to your husbands’ manual, 1 inclose the names of five friends who would like to join Gratefully, yours, 7 8 * © -@ ° Remember, if you are in any domestic trouble, if you can- not deceive your wife without getting found out, if you have to do things your whole nature revolts at, if you are hen- pecked, over-talked, nagged, pampcred, kept in nights, end long for freedom, write us at once in strict confidence. No case is hopeless. Hespanos’ Corrrsroxpexce Burau. Compatible : What a grouchy-looking couple. I wonder what th I | see in each other Sue: They probably have a lot of similar distastes. Our Issuelessness T is not that we have too many that we have none at all. The mere fact that the Prohibitionists discuss the drink question docs not make the drink question suc. The mere fact that the Socialists discuss the question of the unemployed and try 10 make the workingmen want some- hing they don’t want docsn’t make socialism an issue. The mere fact that the Democrats talk of the brilliance and bravery of Bryan and the virile, unvacillating virtue of the solid South does not make these things issues. The mere fact that Republicans rhetoricize upon their records and insult insurgents does not make these things issues. sues in this country; it is comicbooks.com