Life, 1910-10-06 · page 33 of 60
Life — October 6, 1910 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents **"A Cure in the Hills,"** a satirical story about a neurasthenic (a nervous, high-strung person—a common diagnosis for anxiety in the early 20th century). The illustration's caption, "Scenes From Unhistoric Battlefields / Carrying Off The Wounded," uses mock-heroic language to depict what appears to be a woman and man among smaller figures, suggesting domestic conflict portrayed as warfare. The story itself satirizes: 1. **Neurasthenia as fashionable affliction**: The narrator's nervous condition is treated as a legitimate reason for sanitarium rest—a common, often frivolous practice among the wealthy. 2. **Marriage dynamics**: The narrator resents her husband Billy yet is upset he's left; she realizes the "rest cure" location is actually a psychiatric facility disguised as a resort hotel. 3. **Gender and power**: The barred windows, controlling staff, and her husband's role in her confinement suggest anxieties about women's autonomy and medical authority over female patients. The satire targets both the neurotic patient and the medical establishment that profits from treating (or confining) nervous disorders as genuine illnesses.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SCENES FROM UNHISTORIC BATTLEFIELDS CARRYING OFF THY WOUNDED A Cure in the Hills (The Diary of @ Neurasthenic) BY KATE MASTERSON LLLY has gone. I can hear the wheels of the stage that is taking him off to the train, and something has started throbbing in my head as though my brain were choking! If I could only cry! Strange that I should wish to weep for Billy! He has gotten on my nerves so of late that I've hated even to see him. Everything he did, even such a simple thing as ing olives, irritated me to a point of screaming, But when they suggested that I come up to this place to rest for a few weeks it never occurred to me that I was te be all alone. And then, he rather sneaked off, too, with- out bidding me goodby. I thought he had just stepped down to have this barred screen taken out of the windows. It reminded me of a prison, and I requested that he have it removed at once. When he left I examined it and the bars are real and stationary! Evidently the place is a regular sanitarium, though in the hall down stairs as you come in it looks like a big hotel, with a log fire burning on the hearth to welcome you. The maid who is all in white like a nurse came in and | asked her about the screens, laughing casily so she would know that I was a “harmless” case. But she didn’t seem to notice much what I said. I don’t like her manner, 1 suppose I ought to give her some money. Which reminds me that I haven't any money except a little silver in my purse. When it comes to being consistently, almost .ad mirably stupid, Billy can't be beat! Looking from my barred casement this morning [ can see the great hills that last night were hidden in the dark- (Continued on page 574)