Life, 1913-06-19 · page 16 of 52
Life — June 19, 1913 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the British suffragette movement through a letter purporting to be from "Hashimura Toco," a Japanese observer. The cartoon depicts a suffragette with a "VOTES FOR WOMEN" banner, shown in exaggerated, comedic pose. The satire mocks female suffragists by imagining absurd consequences: if chorus girls strike to support women's voting rights, the House of Lords would be forced to grant votes to secure eligible wives for their sons and heirs. The piece ridicules women's political activism as fundamentally driven by marriage prospects rather than justice. The Japanese voice functions as a "naive outsider" device common to period satire, allowing the author (Wallace Irwin) to present misogynistic arguments as comic observations. References to "Femaline Pankhurst" (likely Emmeline Pankhurst, a prominent suffragette leader) and "Hon. Bernard Shaw" anchor the critique in real contemporary figures and debates. The overall message dismisses female intellectual capacity and political legitimacy—characteristic of anti-suffrage rhetoric of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIFE: “Would this Gen. Strike extend to useful trades?” he ask out. “Soonly it would arrive to feet-lights of stage,” I renig, “where Hon. Chorus Girls are working together with beautiful kicks. Hon. Femaline Pankhurst would jabb button in that direction. All handsome twirlers cease, tie up their paints and depart’ off. Next night, when all House of Lords go to theater, as usual, with marriageable expression, what they see? O vacuum!! Entire chorus-dance are being done by men!!! “Naturally there would be some stampedes for door & several noble Piers killed to death. This make such climax in British parlaiment that all comical opera houses must be closed because nobody go see. dance- chorus with nothing but men init. In meanwhiles what are Hon. Cho Girls doing idly? They are making gayety march-step around Bucking Ham Palace with flags distinctually labelled ‘NO VOTES NO DUKES!’ So Hon. House of Lords must donate votes to them. with immediate. quick- ness, because without any Cho Girls to marry there. could, be no Dutchesses. and without Dutchesses there” wouldn’t be no’ ~ Dukelings.. If that-should happen Hon, Hernard Shaw would become King of England.” “Ladies should twine themselves together with all their muscle,” collapse Nogi. _ oo a “If they would do that, stand- ing together to the last man, they would soonly have Hon. British Lion on his male elbows,” I say for wise opinion. “ But this shall never be accomplish because of bull-mouseful qualities of female intellectual- ity. Which are too bad.” Sad expression by me. “Did not Republican Party recently explode apart because of bull-mooseful qualities of male intellec- tuality?” negotiate Nogi with impudence peculiar to bugs. But how can I enlighten a cellar-mind like this? It are folks similar to Nogi who make Truth so hard to pass around. All well here excepting I. Furioki who are expecting twins, Hoping you are the same. Yours truly, “OH WHY DID GOD, CREATOR WISE, THAT PEOPLED HIGHEST HEAVEN WITH SPIRITS MASC! CREATE AT LAST THIS NOVELTY ON EARTH, P 1 I Fe THIS FAIR DEFECT OF NATURE? ”—Paradise Lost. (Per Wallace Irwin.) Hasuiaura Toco. comicbooks.com