Life, 1913-12-04 · page 46 of 112
Life — December 4, 1913 — page 46: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two satirical stories about courtship and social propriety in the early 20th century. **"The College Widow"** mocks the artificiality of romantic pursuit. A young woman claims her overly-tight clothes prevent her from sitting or raising her arms—a transparent excuse that allows her suitor to help her recline on a sofa in a compromising position. The humor lies in her obvious manipulation: she uses fashion constraints as a pretense for intimate assistance, while maintaining plausible deniability about impropriety. The narrator, playing along, adopts the pose of a "fashionable physician"—recognizing the transparent social game. **"The Christmas Glove"** (bottom right) offers a brief joke about Victorian sexual prudishness: the caption sarcastically calls the tradition of hanging stockings "shockingly immodest," mocking how some considered even this innocent custom dangerously suggestive. Together, these pieces satirize the gap between strict social rules governing male-female interaction and young people's creative workarounds to achieve intimacy within those constraints.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Proposals of Robinson THE COLLEGE WIDOW The Rescue “] CAN'T sit down,” she whispered; “T don't dare.” Thad dropped in casually to see her on my way home and she had kept me standing for nearly an hour, until ren- dered desperate—for I had been play- ing tennis all the afternoon—I had pro- posed a chair, “Dare?” She blushed furiously. “T ought to knuw you well enough,” she said, “to tell you, It’s these clothes. They came wrong, and I have had to wear them.” “Oh, I. sce,” I said, leaning up against the wall paper. “An eighth of an inch too narrow? But they look confoundedly well.” “But one should be able to move about. This is very awkward. I can’t even raise my arms, and as for sitting Why not recline on that sofa? I'll give you a hand, if you like, and let you over easy. You needn't bend any.” “Awfully good Thanks!” I managed to hold her up, gradu- ally letting her come down on the lounge in an almost horizontal posi- tion. “Would you mind putting my feet up? Awfully good of you.” I sank in a chair, leaning over her slightly, as if I were a fashionable physician. Her arms were lying along her slim body. of you. There! THE CHRISTMAS GLOVE “THIS IDEA OF HANGING UP ONE'S STOCKING IS SHOCKINGLY IMMODEST.’