Life, 1912-02-08 · page 16 of 44
Life — February 8, 1912 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This *Life* magazine page satirizes early 1910s social anxieties about new dance crazes among wealthy New Yorkers and Newport society. The top cartoon depicts what appears to be a bridge game (titled "One of Life's Lessons in Advanced Auction Bridge"), illustrated as a social gathering. The main article mocks William Randolph Hearst's newspaper (*New York American*) for criticizing the "Turkey Trot"—a ragtime dance considered scandalous for its close partnering and hip movements. The piece humorously catalogs period dances ("grizzly bear," "bunny hug") and their supposed moral standings, satirizing both the dances themselves and society's hand-wringing about them. The bottom cartoon, "The Department Store Habit," depicts a voting mishap—someone claiming they voted for the wrong candidate and must "change it," suggesting voting fraud concerns or the absurdity of treating elections like returnable purchases. The satire targets upper-class moral panic about modern entertainment and changing social mores.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ONE OF LIFES LESSONS IN ADVANCED (AUCTION) HeIDGE Maligning the Turkey Trot DICKENS in the hand is worth ten best-sellers in the library. Because New York and Newport society are just at present manifesting a craze for the disgusting and lecent dance known as “ The Turkey Trot,” ete., © Ne York American. OW, now! Brother Hearst—or is it Brother Graves? has evidently been busy with politics, or foreign travel, or something, and hasn't got this dance matter right. We learn from an eminent expert authority that the turkey trot has suffered in reputation from its associations. “ The turkey trot,” he says, “is decent enough, but simply a romp. It might do for a tennis court, but it isn’t lady-like in even- ing clothes. The ‘grizzly bear’ is a dance that started on the Barbary Coast in San Francisco. It isn’t decent.” This leaves us still without a critical estimate of the “bunny hug.” but as far as it goes, it is informing. THE DEPARTMENT STORE HABIT TT HE people who find themselves in a peck of trouble “on, orricer, 1 FIND 1 vorED THE WRONG TICKET. 1 MUST never complain of shert measure MANGE 11”