Life, 1917-10-25 · page 39 of 44
Life — October 25, 1917 — page 39: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains **primarily advertisements** interspersed with light satirical content. The main feature is **"An Enigma"** by Carolyn Wells—a riddling poem about a mysterious female figure that women desire and men confide in but casually discard. The answer is **"A Pocket,"** a clever play on women's limited agency: pockets are valued possessions on men's clothing but absent from women's garments, satirizing gender inequality and women's restricted access to practical freedoms. The page is dominated by a **W.L. Douglas shoe advertisement** featuring a man in formal dress, emphasizing consistent pricing across cities and quality guarantees. The brief article **"The Busy Bees and the Busier Honey-Sellers"** appears to satirize **wartime price inflation**. It humorously suggests that because flower gardens were replaced with vegetable gardens for the war effort, bees must work longer hours gathering honey, justifying price increases from 25 to 35 cents per bottle—absurdist logic mocking merchants' inflation excuses. The **context is WWI-era America**, when wartime disruptions and profiteering were common satirical targets.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
t . . An Enigma Fo® me, fair women all intensely long, Although they know to have me would be wrong; Wrong, let us say, under convention’s laws, Yet here's a strange decree that gives us pause: Though for a woman I'm bencath a ban, Convention’s law freely gives me to man. And does man heed me? cares no more Than the great sea heeds pebbles on the shore. He thoughtlessly ignores me; doesn’t Nay, he care, And sometimes doesn’t even know I'm there. And then, at times, he will confide to me His dearest secrets. Confidences he Would never even let his wife suspect. I guard them, and his interests protect. Sometimes he clasps me close against his heart, So close, that one might think we'd never part, Then carelessly he tosses me away— We may not meet again for many a day. Ah, cruel man, who negligently spurns That for which woman sadly longs and yearns. Antis and suffragists on this agree, Envying man, that he possesses me. All women crave me; maiden, matron, dame; Tell me, oh, puzzlers, can you guess my name? Answer: A Pocket. Carolyn Wells. War Ynay waar wat Yo! Your maeatwrrt Cine woman Cote Cras. Overt over READ BY MILLIONS BECAUSE THEY TELL OF SEX SUBJECTS WITHOUT MEDICAL TERMS PRICE Price Paice spon! $100 PRICE, Price 00% 1 PRICE S100 K STOO Ket 713 AGARS “MADE AT KEY WEST— “ THE SHOE THAT HOLDS ITS SHAPE” $3 $30 $4 $459 55 $6 87 £58 Known SI = in the World. % W: L- Douglas name and the retail pice | on the bottom of every pair of hocsatt atthe factory. The value is guar- anteed and the wearer protected against high prices for inferior shoes. The retail prices are the same everywhere. They cost no more in San Francisco than they do in New York. They are always worth the price paid for them. The quality of W. L.Douglas product is guaranteed by more than 40 years experience in making fine shoes. The Best latheWortd smart styles are theleaders in the fashion $3. $2.50 $2 centresof America. They are made ina well-equipped factory at Brockton, Mass., by! the highest paid, skilledshoemakers, under the direction and supervision of experienced men, all working with an honest determination to make the best shoes forthe price that money canbi BEWARE, OF FRAUD. ne genuine unte: uy. L. Douglas name and the setait rice Sampedonthe bottoms FAKE NO SUDSEISET For sale by over 9000 shoe dealers and 105 W. L. Douglas store the large cities. If not convenient to call at W. L. Douglas store, ask your local dealer for W. L. Douglas shoes. If he cannot supply you, take noother make. Write for booklet, showing how to order shoes by mail, postage f free. resident hh, W, 1. DOUOLAS SHOE CO. 147 Spark St., Brockton, Mass. BOYSSHOES —Be sure the price stamped on the bottom has not been e1 or rais The Busy Bees and the Busier Honey-Sellers OTTLES of honey that have sold for years at twenty-five cents the bottle are now sold at thirty-five cents the bottle. The explanation of this phenomenon has not yet been issued. When it is, it will probably run some- thing as follows: “ Owing to the war, large numbers of flower gardens have been replaced with vegetable gardens. This has necessitated a great increase of work on the part of the bees. It now takes them ten hours to gather honey which could be gathered in six hours before the war. Contemplation of the bees’ extra labor by the bee farmers makes the bee farmers that they are only able to work seven hours where they formerly worked nine, The two hours which are thus lost must therefore be paid for by the bees, and this can only be done by rais- ing the price of honey. Hence the ten- cent boost.” When a man sees a neigh- bor squeezing extra money out of the proletariat, he seldom allows a little thing like a lie to prevent him from doing some squeezing of his own. Tne Catter: Smith and Banks have employed me to collect the bill you owe them. Tue IMrecusiovs One congratulated, | sir, You are to be in obtaining a per- Lamb. manent position. — comicbooks.com