Life, 1910-10-20 · page 25 of 44
Life — October 20, 1910 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains **book reviews** (titled "Confidential Book Guide") and **two brief humorous dialogues** satirizing contemporary fashion and domestic inconveniences. The photograph at top shows what appears to be **religious devotees or worshippers** in a church or chapel setting—likely illustrating the "Caveat Emptor" (Buyer Beware) reference to cautionary tales in the reviewed books. The two comic dialogues at bottom mock **early 1900s fashion absurdities**: 1. **"Thoughtful"**: A host gives elaborate directions to a bathroom, then jokes about attaching an "auto horn" as a warning signal—because guests might encounter others in the hallway (likely a veiled reference to romantic encounters or propriety concerns in large homes). 2. **"Two Dilemmas"**: Two women cannot meet because fashion has rendered them literally immobile—the "hobble skirt" prevents one from climbing stairs, while the other's oversized hat won't fit through a doorway. Both sketches ridicule the impracticality of contemporary fashions, a recurring satire target during the Edwardian era when hobble skirts and elaborate millinery were popular despite their dysfunction.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
DEVOTEES has placed “ Caveat Emptor’ on the title-page and the book can do no more (as it can do no less) than horrify those who read it unawares. J. B. Kerfoot. An Afair of Dishonor, by William De Morgan. See above. Astir, by John Adams’ Thayer. The autobiography of an Ame! can hustler, Interesting alike for its conscious and its unconscious self-revelations. The Crowts ond the Veiled Woman, by Marian Cox. An ambi- tious experiment in symbclic mysticism. Brilliant, grandiloquent uncanny and dull by turns. The Elm Tree on the Mall, by Anatole France. An exquisitely executed cross-section of French provincialism. The Fourth Dimension Simply Explained, Edited by Henry P. Manning. A chance to turn fascinating mental somersaults under competent instruction. Franklin Winslow Kane, by Anne Douglas Sedgwick. A quiet tale of delicate yet deft character delineation. The Fruit of Desire, by “ Virginia Demarest.” A solution of the marriage question that’ secims to have been written in earnest but can only be taken as a joke. . abghlt Howse of Bondage, by Reginald Wright Kauffman. Sce ove. Karl Mors, His Life and. Work, by John Spargo. A piece of work that fails to gratify the interest that it arouses. The Master Girl, by Ashton Hilliers, One of the most original and interesting stories of the year The Meddlings of Eve, by William John Hopkins, A pair of diaphanous short stories sn which the characters of The Clammer reappear. . Once Aboard the Lugger, by A. S. M, Hutchinson. An amusing mixture of realism and extravaganza by a writer with a gift of satire and the incubus of an artificial style. Rest Harrow, by Maurice Hewlett sequel to Helf Way House and Open Country that no readers of those books should miss and no one else should read. _ The Russian Road to China, by Lindon Bates, Jr. An interest: ing.account of an unusual journey. The Theory of the Theatre, by Clayton Hamilton. Analytical and critical essays of wide scope and real insight. . Types from City Strects, by Hutchins Hapgood. | Gleanings in local’ Bohemia. A mass of excellent literary raw material. The Varmint, by Owen Johnson. A new Lawrenceville School story quite as good as The Eternal Boy he Way Up, by M. P. Wilcox. and sociological struggle in a Devonshir Thoughtful ILKER (to, his friend, a guest over Sunday fellow, if you wish to take a bath in the morning, just open your door, walk down this hall, turn to your right, go up a pair of stairs, and the bathroom is the third door on the right. Tue Frienp: Will I be likely to meet anybody? Winker (with a superior smile): You might at one time, but things are different now. Just attach this auto horn and orously before you come out. n elaborate study of social industrial town, Two Dilemmas “] WANT to sce you just a minute,"” says the lady at the bottom of the steps, “but this hobble skirt is so tight I can’t climb the stairs. You come out, won't you? “T would if I could, but this new hat of mine is too wide to go through the doorway,” sighs the one on the inside, comicbooks.com