Life, 1912-04-11 · page 12 of 46
Life — April 11, 1912 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes bachelor life through two illustrated scenes and accompanying commentary. "A Wall Street Wooing" (top) depicts a man courting a woman, while "A Flirtation" (bottom) shows a more casual domestic scene. The text argues bachelors persist despite financial and social pressures to marry. It notes city bachelors enjoy material comforts and freedom, yet "homesickness" drives some toward marriage—often reluctantly, seeking companionship despite quarrels. The section "Our National Intoxicant" debates whether bachelors drink excessively. The author defends moderate drinking, warning that whiskey itself isn't the danger; rather, the "Intoxicating Bowl" threatens national welfare—likely referencing temperance concerns and Prohibition-era anxieties about alcohol's social impact. The satire critiques both bachelor independence and period anxieties about masculinity, domesticity, and substance abuse.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
This Number Beers: like the poor, we have always with us. They never become extinct. The rising army each year is attacked by an opposing army of females, and each individ- ual is, of course, defeated and led away to the slaughter; yet, in spite of this fact, the bachelor still persists. d things conspire to keep him going; for one, there is the tariff. There can be no doubt that the tariff has done more for the bachelor in this country than any other agency. Then there are the cities. Bachelors who live in cities learn to be very comfortable. They can arrange their home decorations to suit themselves, and can at any time bring home a friend to dinner without any criticism from the management. Bachelors who live in cities can also cat and drink what they please without interference, and so far as all the material comforts are con- cerned, they cas regulate their lives to suit themselves. On the other hand, the thing that depletes the ranks of the bachelors more than anything else is lonesome- ness. Many bachelors are willing to put up with almost any kind of a hard life so long as they can get someone to share it with. se and luxury are, after all, among the minor con- cerns; after a bachelor has expe- rienced them for a sufficient length of time he is willing to get married, if only to have someone to quarrel with: Man is always looking for trouble. A FLIRTATION A WALL STREET WOOING This number is strictly non-partisan. It symp with the bachelors and against them. It holds them up to scorn and it defends them. Incidentally it celebrates them as a basic idea. In spite of woman suffrage, the tariff and other incidentals, may they continue to grow less in numbers as time gocs on. Our National Intoxicant “T HEAR he drinks like a fish “T think that is untrue. I believe he drinks very moderately and no spirits at all. But suppose he did drink, would whiskey intoxicate him? No, I tell you; he would intoxicate whiskey. He is a much more power- ful intoxicant than whiskey. Don’t bother with these tales of what he drinks—they aren’t true—but watch over yourself and push him from your lips, for he is the In- toxicating Bowl. The danger is not that he will fall i intemperance, but that he will intoxicate the country.”