Life, 1919-04-03 · page 59 of 60
Life — April 3, 1919 — page 59: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page mixes fiction with advertising. The main story, "Pals," depicts a modern romantic complication: a young woman has made identical "friendship agreements" with multiple men—promising to treat each other platonically without romantic entanglement. She's now flirting with a golfer while maintaining the same pact with the narrator, who suspects she's grown tired of her own rules. The satire targets early 20th-century courtship anxieties and the era's attempt to create rational, contractual approaches to opposite-sex friendships—a notably progressive but ultimately impractical idea. The woman's casual infidelity to her own agreement undercuts the pretense that such arrangements can work. The advertisements ("Hold Up Your Head," Resinol Soap, Lionel Strongfort) promise self-improvement through vigor, clear skin, and physical development—reflecting period anxieties about masculinity and social acceptability tied to appearance and vitality.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Pals Ho’ does it happen that people are always talking about love?” = she said. “How can they help it,” I replied, You naturally sug- I am beginning to feel that way myself.” “And going back on your word!” The arrangement between us had heen a simple but rather unusual one. She was SS ee She was a very pretty girl. ular girl, Two weeks be- had to She did not understand a very P when I met her first, we chanced have a serious ec Lore ersation. why it was that two people—of op- posite sex—could not he friendly with each other without danger. Thad d to explain it to her, but agreed with It de- ng the course of the con- t we were both going to And she had extracted ment from me that dur- y I would treat her just as good fellow. "1 replied, “that you referred to the subject first. Evidently something brought it up in your mind.” As I spoke she raised her head, and hoking off in the distance I saw a tall young fellow with a bag of golf clubs. “And so that's it,” 1 ventured. She did not blush. Instead she looked at me calmly, = me. velop versation “Yes, that’s it,” she said. “ You sec. I made the same agreement with him that I did with you.” “And he went back on it? No! I'll het you mentioned the matter first to him, just as you did to me.” DLO UP YOUR HEAD! Fit yourself to look any man in the face. Don’t slink about the streets, sickly, skinny and weak, ashamed to have any of your friends see your condition because you are afraid they will read in your face the story of your bad habits, excesses or dissipations, You don't have to stay that way. There isn’t any reason in the world why you can’t act nid of your troubles and mente a mean of yoursely ‘crim. You never can be one while cosstipation is plluing your eae and maddving your brain: while dyspepsia, biliousness, catarth of any chronic ailment’ is hanging lke a weight about your neck and grating lke a cross-cut saw upon Your nerves, | WILL MAKE A MAN OF YOU re done it for thousands of other men who had ‘happiness in life. Dont watch others enjoy bfe ~ ober tel we} blemishes gradually disappear. The extreme purity of Resinol Soap makes it most agreeable for general toilet use. You will find it wonderfully cleansing and yet entirely free from harsh drying alkali. 'O watch others enjoy them- selves while you are left out and neglected is most discourag- ing. If your only barrier between popularity and social success be a faulty complexion, you will find Resinol Soap of the utmost value for clearing your skin. Before long the skin usually takes on a healthier appearance. Rough red spots, excessive oiliness, or other Sold by all druggists and dealers in toilet goods. For a free trial write Resinol, Dept. A-31, Bal- timore, Md. fe) xesinol Soap See ce eR Deeg ees _. “I have no recollection of it,” said, with what I thought was a touch she lips. I suspected, as | looked at her, that she was the guilty party. 1 suspected that she was getting a trifle tired of that agreement. And why not? Hadn't of embarrassment. The truth was that there were four ; 4 Padi how to strengthen your vital organs, develop your 4, Dences, clear yout braie and wale vos the morn that itis good to be nd for my FREE en and Conservation of Health, Strength, an Enerty,"it wilehow you, sithas many other good allows, ay, single way out of your troubles Nature's way, with tal pirst medicine dope ta buy or swallow. Sead postage and packing, and I'l mail « copy at once. IONEL STRONGFORT Physical and Health Specialist Park Bidg. Newark, N. J. of us, and that she had made the agree- ment with each one, as distinct from the rest; and it chanced that we had all found it out. So a week had passed by, in which four young men, with only one re- markably pretty girl among them, had allowed no word of love to pass their she been living on admiration? She thought she didn’t like it, But it was the breath of life to her The next evening we four fellows compared notes. We met every even- ing to do this—and to renew our vow that we would hold out. comicbooks.com