Life, 1911-09-21 · page 29 of 52
Life — September 21, 1911 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three satirical pieces typical of early 20th-century American humor: **"Detachable Marriage"** critiques the Upton Sinclair divorce case (recently in newspapers). The article mocks "advanced minds" advocating trial marriages and easy divorce as impractical solutions. It sarcastically proposes "detachable marriage"—marriages that could be temporarily suspended for "repairs" like a broken automobile—ridiculing the logical absurdity of their position. **The cartoon** shows a mother and children discussing "Willie Jones," with the girl calling their relationship "purely platonic," satirizing how even children adopt trendy adult concepts without understanding them. **"A Time-Honored Contest"** jokes about class conflict: a boy explains a "row" between "haves and have-nots" is actually just kids fighting over access to holes in the fence to watch baseball—reducing grand social struggle to petty playground disputes. **"Other Things"** presents a con-artist dialogue where characters exploit idealistic language ("conscience," "self-respect") as marketing for dubious stock schemes. All pieces mock contemporary progressive ideas and social pretension.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
483 Mother: YoU AND WILLIE JONES SE YOU 11'S PURELY Little girl of the period: ves, nut ts Detachable Marriage HE recent literature of the separation of the Upton Sin- clairs, furnished chiefly to the newspapers by Mrs. Sin clair and the person named Kemp, to whom she seems to have momentarily transferred her esteem, has made unusually thoughtful and not unedifying reading. The edification in it has come, perhaps, inversely to the intention of its purveyors. by their exposition of their minds and sentiments. These ad vanced minds favor trial marriages and increased facilities for divorce, but divorce implies re-marriage and, re-married. they would be in the same fix as before, and presently. be driven to divorce agz Divorce is certainly a grand thing, but it is unsubstai and impermanent, and if you have to keep doing it, it be comes, before long, as tiresome and hard on the nerves as itself. It does not really seem to be what the New Thoughts want. The alleviation they are working for, but have not yet fully defined, seems to be detachable marriage. That would allow for the experimentation so necessary to devoted students of life, and suggested by Mrs. Sinclair when she said, in speak- ing of her marriage did not (then) know the compara ¢ value of loves.” It is true, as she also said, that “it is difficult for a woman to pursue a new love when she is bound up so much in an old.” So it is as our institutions stand at present, but it would not be if we had detachable marriage PLATONIC {TO PLAY TOGETHER A GooD DFAL. WE'RE BOTIL INTERESTED IN MUD PIES; THAT'S ALL. In that case marriage need not fail because of a puncture, and everything come a standstill with long resulting delay and possible failure to arrive at all, but there could be a mere halt and interval for repairs, and then on again. A Time-Honored Contest T" an who was passing the baseball grounds paused interestedly “What's that row about over by the fence?" he asked of an undersized, spectacled lad who was looking on from a replied the boy sedatel. you have no doubt h jd conflict between the haves and the have-nots returned the puzzled inquirer, “* but what——" “Well, this is merely a little skirmish between the have- nots and the have-knot-holes.” Other Things RAGGS: There are still other things than money even in this dollar-chasing age. Waces: Good! That's just what I'm looking for. grab them and form trust, Braces: But I was referring to such things as a clear conscience and self-respect. Waccs: Doesn't matter at all. It will read all the better in the prospectus when we come to sell the stock. Let's comicbooks.com