Life — November 16, 1911 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Explanation for Modern Readers This satirical piece critiques a **Chicago correspondence school for husbands**—an actual business that claimed to teach men how to maintain happy marriages. The cartoon shows numbered men in a queue, labeled "Married in Swift Succession a Number of Chicago Gentlemen," suggesting husbands cycling through the program. The satire targets both the school's dubious efficacy and Chicago's reputation for marital unhappiness. The text ironically explains the school's defensive position: they treat unhappy couples dismissively, yet claim success. The piece mocks the premise that such instruction could fix marriages, and suggests Chicago's particular social climate makes unhappy marriages especially common. The cartoon's humor relies on the absurdity of commercialized marriage "fixing"—a distinctly early-20th-century American phenomenon.