Life, 1915-12-02 · page 67 of 100
Life — December 2, 1915 — page 67: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The page contains three distinct pieces of satirical content: **"His Christmas Present" (illustration):** A man presents a woman with a wrapped gift labeled "FOR YOU." The satire mocks the impersonal nature of Christmas gift-giving—the gift appears to be a sleeping-car ticket (train travel), suggesting husbands shipped wives away during the holidays. **"The Sleeping-car" (prose satire):** A humorous description of railroad sleeping compartments, mocking their cramped conditions, poor ventilation, aggressive porters, and the indignity of shared intimate spaces with strangers. It satirizes American railroad travel and the pretense that such discomfort represents "cosmopolitan" sophistication. **"What You Should Do With Your Boy":** Parodies contradictory parenting advice from "experts"—alternating between sending boys to private school or keeping them home, reasoning with them or imposing authority, loving or disciplining them. The final joke suggests the reader dismisses conflicting advice as mere "fiction." The satire attacks the proliferation of contradictory parenting guidance in early 20th-century popular culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
} he tad Ny Christmas Life 7 -PAUWURUER. HIS CHRISTMAS PRESENT The Sleeping-car SLEEPING-CAR is an elongated bedroom, almost if not quite inhabited by total strangers, who, when they are not using up all the hot and cold water in the salt-cellars hung up in the dressing-room, are snoring themselves to sleep. The sleeping-car consists of upper and lower berths, in either of which, when you have once entered, you wish you had tried the other. The sleeping-car is always placed next to the engine, so that in case of accident the other people in the day coaches may be saved because they are more useful to their country, and railroads are nothing if not patriotic. Sleeping-cars are heated by steam, hot and cold water, electricity, hot air fresh from the engine and people from Chicago. Every sleeping-car has a porter, whose business it is to make up your bed after all the other passengers have been stored away, and who comes around in the morning and destroys your clothing by removing from it the only nap you have had. He also festoons your shoes with lumps of shoe-blacking in order to give them that cosmopolitan appearance which betokens the experienced traveler. Christmas Green (To One in Tipperary) [ SEND you Christmas pine From this sad heart of mine Across the blue— The sky, the sea—to you Who loved the dawn—the dew And knew the joy of spring, Soft summer's blossoming, The thrill the rose can fling O’er winter’s snow. Have you forgotten, then, Those dusky twilights when Life whispered once again A broken song! Reach out your hand to me— Over the stars—the sea— What of your victory, What of your loss? Long is the way to go Where war's red banners blow; Sad is the truth to know Love bears the cross! Deep through the tender rain I hear this broken strain Waiting your voice again Missing you so! Across the miles between, Oh, vanished heart of mine, Garland your Yuletide wine Over the dark sea line With Christmas green! K. M. What You Should Do With Your Boy (Last Word from All the Experts) ND him to a good private school Only by getting him away from home can you make a man of him.” ““A boy needs his parents’ guidance Keep him home and make him a true Democrat at the nearest public school.” “ Show him a reason for everything and he will conform.” “Don't reason with him. Lay down the law and make him obey. “Love him! “ Lick him “IT’S really quite singular about read- ing the papers; some days I like to read them all through, on others I scarcely look at them,” A “That's natural. Nobody likes to read fiction all the time.” comicbooks.com