Life, 1917-04-19 · page 33 of 42
Life — April 19, 1917 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines a **Tiffany & Co. advertisement** (right) with satirical content mocking American suburban life (left and center). The main cartoon depicts a stranger who has crash-landed via flying machine questioning a real estate agent about a town's amenities. His queries progress absurdly—from Sunday movies to church entertainment to Wall Street wire connections—each met with affirmation. When told the town has all these features *plus* unreliable landlords and guaranteed medical emergencies, the stranger concludes he's landed in "fashionable suburbs of New York." The satire targets **suburban pretension and conformity**: wealthy suburbs offer every modern convenience and social activity, yet remain fundamentally unreliable and materialistic. The flying machine arrival suggests he's stumbled upon this world by accident. The bottom item parodies the nursery rhyme "Mary, Mary, quite contrary," showing Mary dismissing gardening to instead subscribe to *Life* magazine—satirizing how advertising and consumerism have replaced traditional domestic interests. Both segments mock 1920s middle/upper-class American preoccupations with status symbols and entertainment over substance.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE “ARE YE GOIN’ TO THE FIREMEN’S BALL NEXT WEEK, JOE? “NIX ON THE DAN, THEM THT Located HE tronned in at the ofice of the real estate deale “Excuse me, sir,” he said, “but per haps you can tell me if they have just begun Sunday movies in this town?” “They have, sit.” “Ts there a brass band, a yodler and vaudeville show connected with the local church?” “There is.” “Can I have a ticker and a private TIFFANY & CO. JEWELRY SILVERWARE SUPERIOR IN QUALITY, DESIGN AND WORKMANSHIP Tie MAIL SERVICE 1S AVAILABLE . TO OUT-OF-TOWN CORRESPONDENTS, FirTy AVENUE & 372STREET New YORK E Ss | wire put in my house, connecting me directly with Wall Street and the Sen- ate Chamber at Washington?” “You can.” “Do the women play bridge, smoke cigarettes on the side and get up a fair every month for local charities, in which they rob every. self-respecting man within a radius of five miles?” “They do.” “Can I have a house which the land- lord guarantees to keep in repair, and of which the roof falls in after I have moved?” “ Certainly.” “Will you guarantee that my appen- dix will have to be removed within six months after I have come at an ex- © approximating five thousand dol- “Yes, sir.” The stranger got up and shook the icicles off his ears, ope up his leather coat and removed his goggles. “Now I know where I am,” he e claimed. “I started off afternoon in my flying machin getting lost in a fog, flew around aim- lessly until 1 decided to come down. I felt pretty sure, but I wasn’t certain until you spoke, that I had alighted in one of the fashionable suburbs of New York.” “AARY, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?” To which Mary promptly replied that she didn’t give a hang, as she had been prudent enough to give her newsdealer an order to save Lire for her every Tuesday.