Life, 1913-04-17 · page 15 of 52
Life — April 17, 1913 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a domestic humor illustration depicting a marital quarrel. A man accuses his wife of flirting with former sweethearts, claiming she no longer loves him despite having called him "a man of a thousand" before marriage. The wife's response contains the joke's punch line: she admits he *was* such a man—but she can't forget the other 999 men she knew. The satire mocks both parties: the husband's wounded vanity about his supposed uniqueness, and the wife's implied promiscuity before marriage. This reflects early-20th-century humor about marriage disillusionment and gender relations, where women's romantic pasts were fair game for ridicule. The sophisticated line-drawing style and witty dialogue are characteristic of Life magazine's satirical approach to middle-class domestic life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ANS 4 i B He: 11's PERFECTLY AWFUL THE WAY YOU CONTINUE TO FLIRT WITH YOUR OLD SWEET- HEARTS. 1 DON’T BELIEVE YOU LOVE ME ANY MORE. AND YET BEFORE WE WERE MARRIED, YOU TOLD ME I WAS A MAN OF A THOUSAND. She: so YOU WERE, MY DEAR, SO YOU WERE. BUT I CAN'T ENTIRELY FORGET THE OTHER NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE. comicbooks.com