Life, 1913-01-16 · page 7 of 40
Life — January 16, 1913 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the modern woman of 1914. The header illustration shows a woman's chaotic life: she reads magazines, plans seasons ahead, buys spring gowns in winter, and schemes about husbands and elopements. The poem mocks her fickleness—planning to run away with a "1914 spouse" while her current husband is unaware. The main illustration depicts the premiere of the opera "Aphrodite," where Life magazine's "staff poetess" reports on "those present." The joke appears to be satirizing society women's obsession with high culture attendance and gossip—they attend opera not for artistic merit but for social visibility and to observe who else appears. It's a critique of superficial high-society culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
z 5 = 5 = E I=] EI Ei 5 5 E FI | H Ee f=} FE | l=] | H EI E| e EI EI S| | fl E E EI EI E ie E E i E EI =| | = I H H] H 1 5 | H EI H [I 5 5 5 EI [4 This Age * January she devours The February magazines; She spends her meant-to-sleep-in hours In figuring the next-day scenes; While ice is covering the street And winter’s snow is sifting down With gauzy slippers on her feet She trips out in her next spring’s gown; Though ‘tis to-day, and now is now, We hardly know just where we are When she gives back our greeting bow, While seated in her next-year's car. Her this-year’s husband may but mope, Somewhere within their last-year’s house, For she is planning to elope With her gay 1914 spouse. THE PREMIERE OF “ APHRODITE” LIFE SENDS THE STAFF POETESS TO REPORT “THOSE PRESENT" AT THE NEW CLASSIC OPERA comicbooks.com