Life, 1911-08-17 · page 12 of 40
Life — August 17, 1911 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes a husband's complaint to Life's advice bureau. A man claims he was engaged to a summer girl, had an affair, and now faces divorce—but insists engagement to summer girls shouldn't "mean anything." The magazine's response is blunt: they reject his premise entirely. They defend summer romances as legitimate, argue husbands and wives should eventually reunite, and criticize his apparent belief that casual summer flirtations excuse infidelity. The cartoons mock various absurdities: a man asking if "roads seem cut on the bias" (nonsensical), a "prehistoric artist" refusing costume models, and a real estate agent hyping a cottage's view over practicality. The satire targets male entitlement and the era's double standards around infidelity and romantic commitment.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘LIFE- Be Friendly to All Summer Girls But this Does Not Mean thar You Should Become Engaged to One, Especially When You Havea Wife at Home—Two Cases Cited by Husbands’ Correspondence Bureau O \E of our customers under treatment by this Bureau: has just written us to the effcct that while we have been treating him he visited a summer resort and became tempo- ily engaged to a summer girl, which led to complications that ke didn’t foresee, and his wife is now suing him for a divorce He states that he thought it was generally under- stood that an engagement to a summer girl did not mean ything, and he looks to us to get him out of, his difficulty We have promptly refunded this gentleman's money. and we desire to say for the benefit of all concerned that he en tirely misconceives the object of this Bureau. and that, further. more, he docs not deserve any consideration at our hands. He has mistaken our apparently liberal views. It is quite true that for the benefit of our customers we have a couple of secing-the-tenderloin autos; that we have an Entertain- ment Committee for the purpose of keeping the minds of some of our most distressed clients occupied: that we have a Paris and Constantinople branch, and that our popular book, entitled “A Galaxy of Beauties,” is now in its twenty-fifth edition; but he docs not understand that all this is done for the ultimate purpose of bringing husband and wife together, and that under no circumstances do we countenance any outside engagements. Our principle is perfectly simple: we believe that the utmost freedom will eventually bring husband and wife to- gether Besides, when a man has been living for some time “JOSEPH, PO YOU NOTICE THAT ALL TILE ROADS ABOUT HERE M TO ME CUT ON THE BIAS?” : IT'S A NICE LITTLE CoTTAGE, BUT DON’S You MENT A TRIFLE W1GIt? bo you . Lobster (the real estate agent): wict! MAN, Just Look aT THE View! Prehistoric Model: po you Prehistoric Artist. 1 DON'T USE COSTUME MODELS POSF FoR THE FIGURE? comicbooks.com