Life — November 29, 1917 — page 17: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon depicts King Solomon with multiple wives, addressing a slave about remembering their wedding anniversaries. The humor centers on Solomon's legendary polygamy—he famously had many wives in biblical tradition—and the impractical administrative burden this created. The joke is modern for its era: the slave suggests installing a "card-index system" (an early filing/organization method) to manage the anniversary dates. The satire mocks both Solomon's excess and the absurdity of needing bureaucratic organization for domestic obligations. For contemporary readers, this likely satirized either wealthy men's marital entanglements or—less likely but possible—critiqued business/industrial organization as excessive. The caricatured figures (appearing to represent stereotypical "exotic" servants) were typical of period illustration style.