Life, 1913-12-04 · page 39 of 112
Life — December 4, 1913 — page 39: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical comic from *Life* magazine humorously illustrates impractical or unwanted Christmas gift ideas that recipients will never actually receive. The scenarios mock common domestic tensions: 1. **Mr. Serroges' "X-ray gowns"** — a joke about revealing clothing that no wife would accept as a gift 2. **Mr. Brown and the raceabout** — a father refusing his son an expensive toy car, postponing it to next year 3. **Mrs. Peckham's newspaper rest** — an impractical domestic gadget no husband wants 4. **Mr. Tipples' non-refillable bottle** — a temperance-era jab suggesting a teetotaler's wife might symbolically gift him a bottle he can't refill with alcohol The central image of a luxury automobile reinforces the theme: expensive gifts wealthy men want but won't receive during financially cautious times. The humor relies on recognizing the gap between desire and domestic reality, particularly around class anxieties and spousal disagreements over spending.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ao SeRO6ES Mi HARDLY, PRESENT HIS YOUNG WIFE —WEITHER WILL” MRS. PECKHAM GIVE HENRY THE rL “X RAY GOWNS SNE HAS SET NEWSPAPER REST FOR HIS MORNING PAPER THAT WR Maan veo WE HAS DESIRED THESE MANY YEARS TRE CHANCES ARE THAT MRBROWNY WILLASK LITTLE DUDLEY TO WAIT THL NEXT 3 _YEAR FORHIS HEW RACEABOUT. Wed +S A PAIR OF NICE, , A WARM ARCICS PERHAPS MR. TIPPLES WIFE WILL SUMMON UP ‘ENOUGH COURAGE To GIVE Wit A NON-REFILLABLE BOTTLE.