Life, 1917-03-22 · page 27 of 38
Life — March 22, 1917 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"The Water Cure" Cartoon (top):** A satirical visual joke about honeymoon behavior. A man sprays his new wife with a fire hose labeled "WATER CURE" while another couple watches from a well. The caption suggests the "honeymoon disease"—excessive sentimentality and foolishness between newlyweds—requires drastic treatment to cure. The exaggerated violence is the joke. **"The Curable Honeymoon" Essay:** Tongue-in-cheek commentary treating honeymoon infatuation as a temporary illness. The author humorously argues it's self-limiting but suggests (facetiously) that if it lasted forever, society would collapse since married couples would abandon all other occupations and pursuits. **"His Honor's Motive":** A brief political joke about a newly elected mayor appointing disreputable people to city jobs. The punchline: he chose "bums" to avoid corrupting respectable men—implying city jobs are inherently corrupting. **"Hypnotism" Illustration (bottom right):** A flirtation scene where a man claims he could hypnotize a woman into embracing him; she replies she could hypnotize him into compliance faster—a witty reversal suggesting female agency in romantic encounters.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Curable Honeymoon SOME people never recover from their honeymoons. They grow more foolish and irresponsible and senti- mental about each other as the years roll on, and come to be regarded by the rising generation as quite hopeless. Yes, indeed, there are grandparents like that. But as a rule the honeymoon is the most curable disease with which people are afflicted. In its first stages it is ex- ceedingly violent, and everybody gives up the patients at once. Some people have recurring attacks of it, but usually frequent doses of days and weeks, continued conscientiously over a few years, effect a cure. The disease is common to all climates and every race, and it is usually best to let it run its course. What is really needed, however, is some assurance that the honey- moon will last a normal and reasonable length of time. Indeed, if some philanthropic doctor could only invent a honeymoon toxin that would renew the complaint so it would last every patient during his natural life, what a boon that would be! It would be an immense saving. Amusements would die out. Literature would languish. Only railroad systems and grand scenery and quiet inns would flourish. For if every married life was only one long honeymoon—as it really ought to be—nobody would need to have any other occupation. His Honor’s Motive L ERRET: Our newly elected mayor's appointees are simply bums. Whatever made him select such dis- reputable fellows? Yaoitton: He said he didn’t want to ruin a lot of nice, honest men by giving them city jobs. “1 COULD SO HYPNOTIZE YOU, JANE, THAT IN HALF AN HOUR YOU WOULD THROW YOUR ARMS AROUND MY NECK” “AND 1 COULD SO HYPNOTIZE YOU IN LESS THAN a MINUTE!" comicbooks.com