Life, 1913-07-03 · page 19 of 48
Life — July 3, 1913 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1910s-era satire mocks the "anti-suffrage" argument that women's demand for voting rights destroys domestic life. The story presents a man who expelled his suffragist wife, then hired an all-male household staff to achieve perfect peace and happiness—proving women cause all domestic chaos. The joke subverts his triumph: when his ex-wife returns, his male servants immediately quit rather than work alongside a woman, revealing the absurdity of his position. His "perfect" all-male system collapses the moment it encounters actual women. The top cartoon labeled "Nightmare of a Patron of the Moving Pictures" appears to satirize cinema patrons' anxieties about social change, though its exact reference is unclear. The satire targets anti-suffrage rhetoric by showing that removing women doesn't create male independence—it only exposes how dependent men actually are on women's labor, even while denying it.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
NIGHTMARE OF A PATRON OF THE MOVING PICTURES The Serpent Enters LY take me back!” A few moments before, the bell had rung, and now Perit, sitting in his comfortable den, rose in aston- ishment as the miserable woman who had left him a year ago stood upon the threshold. He ignored her pathetic demand for a moment, as he said: “ How in the world did you get in “T appealed to your butler’s finer feelings.” “Um! I shall discharge him to- morrow. That will teach him that the moment a woman enters the scene there’s trouble. It will be an object lesson, and may save him from further folly. Now, listen——” He folded his arms and looked at her calmly. “The best way to answer your ques- tions,” he said, “is to present you with the facts. A couple of years ago you developed suffragist tendencies. Things went along for a year, from bad to worse. You were out almost every night, and the servants were demoralized. Finally I insisted that you leave me, and you joyfully agreed. In the meantime, it suddenly occurred to me to try a new experiment in domestic economy. It’s the all-man scheme, and it works perfectly. I em- ploy nobody but. men—to cook, to make beds; in fact, to do everything. I gave orders that no woman was ever to be admitted to my home. It is useless to ask me to take you back. At last, under the all-man régime, I have discovered the secret of happi- ness—no wrangling, no talk, no fem- inine temperaments to be constantly straightening out. If woman suffrage never did anything else, this would be enough. It has enabled man to at last discover his Home in himself.” 19 The woman advanced slightly. Her cards had not all been played. “Who sews your buttons on?” she asked. “My tailor, who calls once a week. “Who nurses you when you fall sick?" “T don't fall sick, Illness is due to the worry of having women around. Remove the cause, and one is alway well.” At this moment there was a knock at the door. The man opened it. All his male servants were gathered on the outside. “Pardon, sir! moment?” The man left his wife and went out into the hall. “Well?” he asked. “We are sorry, sir. But we shall have to leave you. We cannot stay in the same house with any lady.” “Why did you ask her in?” said the man to the Butler. “She said, sir, that you had sent for her.” Jery well,” said the man, proudly, “you may go.” He turned toward his study once more. Suddenly, not knowing the reason why, he had become interested in the woman, He did not know that May we see you a A SUCCESSFUL CUBIST comicbooks.com.