Life, 1915-01-28 · page 12 of 40
Life — January 28, 1915 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page satirizes early 20th-century debates about women's education and domestic roles. **"The Kiss"** (top illustration by W.A. Walker) depicts a young rector receiving a kiss, captioned as payment for a future "transfiguration"—likely mocking both religious authority and romantic entanglement. **"A Sign of the Times"** discusses the National Housewives' League, which Mrs. Julian Heath founded to teach women "intelligent buying" and household efficiency. The text sarcastically questions whether women truly want such education, suggesting most prefer leisure activities (clubs, travel, the tango) over domestic work. The satire critiques both women who avoid housekeeping and reformers pushing domestic "expertise." **"Making News"** (bottom) shows a reporter confronting a woman about a retracted statement—commentary on modern journalism and public discourse.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“ERE E * ERPVVANL KEN THE KISS Young Rector: ¥OR WHAT 1 AM AROUT TO RECEIVE, © LORD, MAY 1 BE TRULY THANKFUL A Sign of the Times W ve to pay our respects to the National House- w League, Inc.,.which has recently, let us hope for the benefit of mankind, started upon its career in New York. Expert butchers, meetings of housewives, bachelor rls and lessons in cooking are among the special features cheduled. Says Mrs. Julian Heath, the president: “We want to teach women how to reduce the cost of living by careful and intelligent buying. But can any organization, no matter how enthusiastic, each women how to be intelligent buyers, how to become expert cooks and how to run their households skillfully if they are not interested in learning? Most women regard household work, not as an art from which the same pleasure can be obtained as from any art, but as a some- what lower order of things than they are here for. They regard other things—woman suffrage. woman's clubs, the tango, trips abroad in summer and South in winter, bridge and auto riding—as more important than domestic economy. They could become intelligent buyers and good cooks and expert housekeepers if they wanted to be. But they don’t want to be. If they were interested enough in these things they would require no organization to teach them. They would learn in the only way that counts when real results are to be achieved: they would soon teach themselves. The creation of the Housewives’ League, and of many other similar “helpful” organiza- tions, is only concrete evidence that the number of women who don’t want to know how to keep house is on the increase. Ineciprocal Finance order that we may all live in peace and amity together and keep the economic structure intact, it is necessary that governments stand behind banks and that the banks stand behind governments. And so it is done, but when banks stand behind governments, they demand as high a rate of interest as their conscience will allow them to demand and th skill can secure; but when the governments stand behind the banks, they demand but a nominal recompense, or none at all. The result is that governments, municipal. state and national, are always in debt and called upon regularly to make large interest payments, while the banks live the peaceful, non-contributory life of corpulence, opu- lence and affluence. E.0. J. MAKING NEWS Reporter: MADAM, YOU MAY RECOLLECT THAT WE PRINTED YESTERDAY YOUR DENIAL OF HAVING RETRACTED THE CONTRA- DICTION OF YOUR ORIGINAL STATEMENT. WOULD YOU CARE TO HAVE US SAY THAT YOU WERE MISQUOTED IN REGARD TO IT?