Life, 1910-12-01 · page 70 of 108
Life — December 1, 1910 — page 70: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains humorous Christmas content satirizing gift-giving conventions and Victorian social attitudes. **"Christmas Gifts"** (top): A cartoon shows people shopping, with the caption about a husband asking for a suit. The joke plays on marital dynamics—the wife sarcastically doubts he could fit into it, implying weight gain. The accompanying list mockingly suggests slippers for literally everyone (father, mother, servants, even the ashman and "jail"), satirizing the era's unimaginative, standardized gift-giving. **"Christmas Ghosts"** (lower left): Sentimental poetry about loneliness and regret, typical of the period's maudlin sentimentality. **"Snapshots"** section: Brief witticisms mocking social pretense—suffragettes, affected people, and children as "uncivilized." **"Fortune Teller"** (right): Humorous horoscope predictions for December births, joking about future spouses' annoying habits (over-perfuming, reading aloud, darning socks), reflecting period gender stereotypes and marital comedies. The overall tone uses gentle ridicule of consumer culture and social conventions typical of early 20th-century Life magazine's satirical approach.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
RSayY LIFE (387 $8 Christmas Gifts T is with a truly natural sense of delicacy that Lire intrudes upon the domain of those publications which offer to the public at this time so many valuable suggestions as to Christmas gifts. For this reason, and because any originality in the selection is equivalent to a secession from the spirjt of the day, we ask the indulgence of the Ladies’ Home Journal, The Housewife, and the Boot and Shoe Recorder for thus trespassing upon the privilege sanctioned by so many years. For Father.. A pair of embroidered house slippers. “Mother Warm bath slippers, Son . Comfortable evening slippers. Daughter Soft, easy slippers. Uncle ... Lounging slippers. Aunt .. .. Bedzoom slippers. Brother . - Slippers for afternoon wear, Sister . Pink slippers for evening wear. other Brothers or Sisters... Other kinds of slippers. Grandfather ..... Carpet slippers (Brusscls). Grandmother Old-fashioned carpet slippers (Wilton). Brother-in-law.... Fancy slippers. “ & jail .,. Large, restful slippers. Stepmother Good, roomy slippers. Elevator Boy.....Working slippers. Cook .... Jeweled slippers. Ashman . The slippers you received last year. Dogeatcher “ * “ se Valet ... . Just slippers, “JOHN, GET ME THAT SUIT FoR CHRISTMAS?" Harold Everett Porter. “YT WILL, IF YOU THINK YOU COULD GET 1NTO 1T.”’ Christmas Ghosts LIFE’S INFALLIBLE FORTUNE TELLER ITH my sceret sorrow, alone at last! The tears from my heart rise sad, incessant; And I sit with the ghost of a Christmas past— . 4 a ‘Your future husband aa ' h “ sia For I ene ghost of aiCurieien Feasttescets hale cbleceaat will be interested in who will often If you were born on December the salvation of the change pulpits oa Snapshots souls of the heathen account of your ob- (CHILDREN are merely men and es and you will live jection to letting women who have not, yet suc- principally on his women parish- cumbed to civilization. warmed-up food. foners run your as ‘ household affairs. N affinity is a fresh disappointment in disguise. “BS. Your future wile Your future husband 5 SUFFRAGETTE by any other name will be incurably will be fond of read- would talk as much. addicted to over ing aloud, and you FFECTATION is dignity making indulgence in pow- will become expert an ass of itself erful perfumes. in cleeping sitting 5 Your only refuge up in your chair. Great Mystery Solved will be in flight. ““D)APA, what docs Santa Claus do be- tween Christmases? '’ “G8 Your future wile ‘Your future husband &@~ “ Hides from his creditors.”” eam taven othe ta will have a prejus wets : dice against wearing will Vivacious Se darned soci. which “*)\ J[AMMA, the Duke has proposed.’* why you prefer will give you more “When did you see him?” 4 your newspaper to time for playing “Oh, I haven't seen him. I just got her conversation. bridge. .a telephone from papa.”*