Life, 1918-04-11 · page 32 of 44
Life — April 11, 1918 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines humorous anecdotes with period advertising, typical of early 20th-century Life magazine. **The humor pieces** mock social conventions and domestic life: - "A Boy's Bad Break": A child innocently mistakes a visiting lady's calling card for cigarette rolling paper—satirizing both class pretensions and changing social mores (women smoking was still somewhat scandalous). - "Better than a mustard plaster": Advertorial comparing old remedies to modern Musterole balm. - "On to Him": A young man's complaints about rising coal and sugar prices backfire when his girlfriend assumes he's making excuses to break up with her—mocking male obtuseness in romance. - "The Limit": Brief joke about extravagance (hiring a plumber for a car). - "Hatusab" story: An ancient Egyptian wife's petty revenge, framed as exotic/comedic. **The advertisements** (Egyptian Deities cigarettes, Biltmore hotel, tea time culture) reflect period consumer aspirations and gender roles. The page overall captures 1920s-era American middle-class humor, social anxieties about modernization, and emerging consumer culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A Boy's Bad Break A rather dignified lady got a little shock the other afternoon, She called at the house of a new. acquaintance, and the little fellow who answered the door said that his mother was out, The dignified lady took out a card to leave, and in do- ing so let the tissue sheet flutter to the ground. The boy glanced at it. * Please’m,” hetsaid, “ you dropped one of your cigarette papers."—Transeript. Better than a mustard plaster Once when grandma’s joints commenced to pringle and twinge, she used to go to.the mustard pot and make a mustard aster. Now she goes to lusterole and gets relief, but does without the blister and the plaster, too! My, how good that Musterole feels when you rub it in gently over that lame back and those sore muscles. First you feel the entle tingle, then the de- Fgntful, soothing coolness that reaches in the twing- ing joints or stiff, sore muscles, It penetrates to the heart e congestion. This is because it is made of oil of Mustard and other home simples, And the heat gen- erated by Musterole will not blister. On the contrary the peculiarity of Musterole lies in the fact that shortly it gives you such a cool, relieved feeling all about the twingey part. And Musterole usually brings the relief while you are rubbing iton. Always keep a jar handy. Many doctors and nurses recom- mend Musterole, 30c and 60c jars— $2.50 hospital size, The Musterole Co., Cleveland, Ohio On to Him One evening some time since John Henry called on the darling of his heart, and while talking to the fair one he casually referred to some of the hardships of the Present day. “TL see, Gladys,” he remarked, “that the price of coal has gone up again, and that it is hard to get at any price. “Has it?” responded Gladys, without any great concern, answered John Henry, “and they are also advancing house . while sugar—"" ook here, John Henry!” suddenly interjected the fair one, with a withering expression, “If you want to break off wement, say so, but don't try to ound the bush in such a cowardly "—Philadelphia Telegraph. “THE MANOR"- Asheville, North Carolin IN AMERICA—AN ENGLISH INN—Perfect GOLF. The Limit Tep: I hear he is very extravagant. Nei Is he? Why, he had a plumber repair his auto, —St, Louis Globe-Democrat. VIE lovely Hatusab was, peeved. Her royal spouse, Psattichus I1, had been showing entirely too much in- terest in a lately acquired Circassian lovely, and achieved a double re On Tuesday morning she int the royal copy of Lire, to which the king was a devoted subscriber, and se- ereted it in the apartment of the Cir- cassian, Thus she vexed her husband mightily, and at the same time caused the demise of her rival. i Plain End Rople of culture and refinement invaria PREFER. Deities to any other cigarette his mig seri ty @e BILTMORE 43rd and 44th Streets and Madison Avenue The center of social life at TEA TIME Ideally convenient for suburban dwellers comicbookssg