Life, 1914-12-24 · page 19 of 40
Life — December 24, 1914 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This comic sketch satirizes male hypocrisy and domestic power dynamics. A father lectures his son Harold about women's excessive spending on clothes, condemning it as a "senseless system" that weakens the nation. He moralizes about his wife's lack of self-control while spending money frivolously. The joke's punch line arrives when the father hears his wife rustling upstairs—he immediately reverses position, praising women's duty to "keep herself well dressed" for freshness and charm, specifically citing his own wife as an example. His principles evaporate the moment his wife might overhear criticism. The title "Silent Partner" suggests the wife's quiet power: though absent from the scene, she controls the father's behavior through mere proximity. The accompanying "Tact?" joke reinforces the theme—women use social intelligence strategically. The satire targets male self-righteousness and the gap between public moralizing and private behavior in early 20th-century domestic life.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
And she got the habit of doing it and now she can't stop.” “Harold, 1 am continually amazed at your remarkalle precocity; at the same time, it only bears out the theory I have had for some time, that young people of your age are capable of fully understanding the thoughts of us elders and of expressing themselves intelligently if only some kind and self-sacrificing parent—er- the opportunity. But in this instance, Harold, you are altogether wrong.” “Tam so sorry to hear that, papa, but I cannot tell you how glad I am to think you are so kind and good and take such an interest in me as to give me the benefit of your wonderful ex- perience— THE SILENT PARTNER Now, my boy, one moment. Let me caution you against using too many high-sounding phrases like that. Be simple, as I always endeavor to be. Let me, therefore, give you, in a few clear words, the truth. All women to-day spend twice as much as they ought on their clothes. Your mother is the victim of a senseless system, due to the spirit of national extravagance and fostered by cunning tradespeople. Your mother, I am sorry to say, my boy, hasn't control enough to f against this awful tendency, which is slowly sapping away the life blood of this great nation, permeating with its insidious and baleful influ- ence our family life and—what's that noise?" “1 think, papa, that it is mother turning out the lights upstairs. Yes, papa, that’s her gown rustling. “To be sure. s I was saying, Harold, when you interrupted me, and in spite of that, it is, as I regard it, every woman's sacred duty to keep herself well dressed. Only in this way can she maintain her freshness, her charm—just as your dear mother does. Ready, my dear?” Tact? Has she any tact? Tact? She's the kind of who'd send a wrist-watch to Venus of Milo for a Christmas present yx B woman wes? the comicbooks.com