Life, 1917-11-01 · page 36 of 38
Life — November 1, 1917 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Cartoon:** A domestic comedy about price and value. A husband lectures his wife about hats, insisting the cheapest ($25) is superior to expensive ones ($85). His wife tricks him by having the milliner swap the price tags. When he discovers he's been fooled into praising what was actually the most expensive hat, he's caught in his own logic—he can't now claim it's inferior without contradicting his stated belief that price doesn't determine quality. **The Satire's Point:** This mocks male pretension and false reasoning about economics and taste. The husband uses pseudo-logical arguments about value to dominate his wife, but the joke exposes that his judgment was actually based on price psychology all along. His wife's clever reversal demonstrates that his "principles" are hollow. **Context:** This reflects early-20th-century gender dynamics where wives controlled household spending but husbands claimed rational authority. The humor targets male vanity and faulty reasoning dressed up as philosophy. The page also contains period advertisements (Capewell nails, a banker, Egyptian Deities cigarettes, Evans ale).
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
730 He (to his wife): What did I tell — EGYPTIAN you? You have got an idea that be- cause a hat is very expensive it is DEITIES bound to look well, and it has always | _ | “Dhe Utmost in Cigaretles been my contention that the cheapest Than End ork hp hat may be the best one. There you i | Ropleofoulure refinement are; three hats, one eighty-five dollars, mae \ | and education iw one sixty dollars and one twenty-five 9 rs | PREFER Deities dollars. No comparison. This first * ang other agate, hat at twenty-five dollars lays way y h 7 . a 25° over the others, doesn’t it, Ma- dame? £ 5 Shrargyros Maters of the Leghest Conde Terkish ond Eqyplean Copareties ot the Brig Mapame: How can I dispute you, sir? It suits her perfectly. Sue (smiling at her husband): So, dear, if this is your judgment, very well. You insist that the first hat is the best-looking? He: Haven't I said so? Sue: Very well, Madame, you may send it. (He almost drags her out of the store. They walk for a few moments in silence.) He (turning suddenly): Here you have been spending twice as much for your hats all these years, just because ——— - A real bread and butter beverag The Test That Tests— you were afraid to get something rea- that makes for enjoyment and health ei ey ae _ sonable. wal service. Nothing like it to prove the holdis aa 5 ‘ See ot obeaeincl 8 m "= Sue: There is no doubt in your A Croevall exe tare been werd i ic wey mind but what that hat you selected fer mere han 35 renee They eed afl othe. was the best hat of the three? 7 best at @ fair price—not cheapest regardless of sarflcme cd qoaley. «Capeweil” nail He: Well, I should say not! You | see, you are fooled by the price. You think because one hat costs more than A BAN KER another that it is better. 3 by sal fr thin ge prztoaion Sue (smiling): And you are per- NON-INTOXICATING coo seg ein hes : fectly satisfied with that hat? Al e 478 East State Strest, LU MBS. O! | NO GOVERNMENT LICENSE REQUIRED A pure food product of the better kind} Untodare Grocers and Desiors ©. UL EVANS & S088 Ental. 17860 HUDSON, He (suspecting something wrong): Why, sure. What do you mean? Sue: Well, you know it was only a joke, but I told Madame to change the prices. The cighty-five-dollar hat was really the twenty-five-dollar one Man shall enter in at the gate, but even a dog and the twenty-five-dollar one was the might be permitted to keep watch cighty-five-dollar one. on the ramparts. . 7 He: The devil! There’s a good dog and true in the new novel by John Ames Mitchell Sue (calmly) + i P :, a Fi * Sue ly): But you cannot go Editor of LiFe and author of “The Pines of Lory,” “Amos Judd,” etc. back-on t now, because you yourself have admitted that the one we selected | was the best. The hero of the story may not please everybody,—but Zac HE. Count of Monte Cristo was loved him. Though Zac’s grave has been moss-grown since wondering how he could spend 0 Drowsy was a boy, somewhere in Eternity he’s still waiting | million dollars for Christmas presents. for the voice of the master. Net $1.50 | “T have it!” he exclaimed. “1 will subscribe to Lire for two hundred STOKES, Publisher thousand persons of good taste who would really enjoy Lire.” PETER J. CAREY, PRINTER