Life, 1911-11-30 · page 11 of 40
Life — November 30, 1911 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The cartoon depicts a domestic scene where a husband asks his wife to have a button sewn on—a mundane request framed as negotiation. The humor lies in the wife's apparent refusal or delay, with the husband offering to "arrange" time for this simple task, suggesting she's too busy with meetings or lectures to manage basic domestic duties. This satirizes early 20th-century tensions over women's expanding roles. As women increasingly engaged in civic activities, education, and reform movements, traditional domestic responsibilities became points of household friction. The cartoon mocks both the husband's inability to sew and the wife's prioritization of public activities over domestic service—reflecting anxieties about changing gender roles during the Progressive Era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
pill Husband: MY DEAR, 1 DON’T WANT TO INTERFERE WITH ANY OF YOUR MEETINGS OR LECTURES OR OTHER DUTIES. BUT—ER—COULD YOU ARRANGE TO—ER—HAVE A RUTTON SEWED ON FOR ME SOME TIME THIS WEEK? esting to see what it does in California, especially in Los Angeles, where already in the primary it has surprised the town by nominating a Socialist—Job Harriman—for Mayor against the present reform-Mayor Alexander. The municipal election in Los Angeles comes in Decem- ber. ELS The Sphinx Expounded NOTHER mystery is solved. Professor Reisner of the Boston Expedition to Egypt has come back, and tells the Boston people that the Sphinx is a portrait of Chephren, the builder of the second pyramid, mounted in the customary way to ward off evil spirits. We thought the Sphinx was a lady, but no matter. Since Professor Reisner is so good at riddles, why not get him to unravel the Sherman law! COMPETITION may be dead, as Judge Gary says, but its ghost appears to haunt the days and nights of them who slew it. Questions HE Tariff Commission, which was appointed by Presi- dent Taft to find out about schedule K and other tariff matters, seems to us to be superfluous. What is really needed is a commission to find out about President Taft. Does he really think that the tariff can be lowered by postponing any action until everybody has given up hope? Who is he trying to please? What does he think he thinks? Incidentally, who does he think he thinks elected him, and for what purpose? Does he think? RS. HOWARD: And so two of your sons are Boy Scouts? Where do they do most of their recon- noitering ? Mrs. Cowanp: In our refrigerator. comicbooks.com