Life — August 26, 1915 — page 21: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon depicts two men in formal wedding attire—the bridegroom and best man—discussing alcohol consumption before a ceremony. The bridegroom asks how much he should drink to calm his nerves, and the best man cynically advises him to keep drinking until he becomes indifferent to whether he gets married at all. The humor operates on multiple levels: it mocks pre-wedding jitters as something requiring alcohol to endure, suggests marriage itself is an undesirable fate requiring intoxication to accept, and captures a particular masculine attitude toward matrimony as an obligation rather than a desired event. The title "Tragic Moments" underscores this perspective, treating marriage as something to be endured rather than celebrated. The cartoon reflects early 20th-century satirical attitudes toward marriage and bachelor anxiety.