Life, 1919-07-10 · page 36 of 50
Life — July 10, 1919 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features a humorous essay satirizing female social types and class anxiety among wives in the 1920s. The author sketches three of his wife's friends, revealing social anxieties of the period: **Maude** represents the unglamorous, perpetually single working woman who serves as convenient household help—exploited through social obligation rather than genuine friendship. **Madge** embodies nouveau-riche pretension: she marries wealth but lacks elegance, wearing cheap-looking clothes despite expensive shopping sprees that make the author's wife insecure. **Mrs. Corbin** is presented as the ideal—tasteful, independent, financially secure, composed. Notably, she's a divorcée or widow who smokes and drinks cocktails (scandalous by earlier standards) yet commands respect through confidence rather than conspicuous consumption. The satire critiques wives' competitive materialism and status-consciousness, while praising authenticity and restraint. The closing joke equates an annual *Life* subscription to temptation itself—the magazine's ironic self-promotion. The surrounding advertisements (soap, cigarettes, automobile lamps) represent typical 1920 consumer culture contexts.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
gar under ail conditions. DEPENDABLE electric system is of ut- most importance. Electric equip- ment must be correctly designed and precisely built. A system bearing the name “Gray & Davis” of efficient performance at all seasons, GRAY ®& DAVIS INC. ary 7 at j emt assures the owner uit Ti Herbert t London Cigarettes Herbert Tareyton London Smoking Mixture imple upon request Falk Tobacco Co. Inc., 1786 Broadway, New York Your Best Asset — A Skin Cleared By — Cuticura Soap Soap 25, Ointment 23 & 60, Taleum 2. ve of “ Caticura, Dept, B, boston.” Does Your Hand |* Itch for a Pencil? My Wife’s Friends AUDE—A good girl, a bit short in the wheel-base, chronically un- married. Whenever the baby is. sick or there is extra work to do in our house, Maude runs in and does it. She is always giving my wife things, but, as far as I can see, my wife never ves her anything, except that three days before Christmas she sits down and says, “ Well, I suppose I must get something for Maude.” Mapce—Not a star by any means, but she J to marry a man who has a g I more money than | d have. Madge spends a lot of money on her clothes, but she always looks like a milkmaid. I can always tell when my wife has been shopping with Madge, for she comes in very silent, and finally says, “ Think of her having a hundred-dollar hat!” Mrs, Corntn—She has no visible husband, and never speaks of an in- visible one. She has a son about twelve who spends all his time at a boys’ school on the other side of the continent. She plays a great game of golf and a fine hand at bridge. She wears as good clothes as Madge does, STYLES FOR 1920 but my wife never envies her ak dollar hat. She smokes enly and takes a cocktail at the cou try club, but never more than one. My wife likes Mrs. Corbin the best of all her friends, and so do I, but my wife does not Woit, S ANTHONY successfully resist- ed the temptation of the lovely ladies the Evil One sent to lure him ll from his loneliness in his hermit ce But the On s Stupid as well as Evil, or he would have tempted him with an annual subscription to Lire, CHOP SUEY | Odd delicacies of the Orient — Chinese ‘ water chestnuts, Chinese bean sprouts bamboo shoots and other rich ingredi- ents all combined by our || tf master chef — that isin- |||] fu imitable Purity Cross Chop _ || rr Suey! | ALSO—PURITY CROSSCHIcAe® j ala King, Creamed Spaghetti au Gratin, Creamed Finnan Haddie, Lobster New dui, Welsh 'Rarebit, and Corned Beef Hasb—all in 2 tins —ready for your instant use—at good stores SPECIAL—Get-Acquainted Assortment Offer If your dealer basa’t Purity Cross Delicacies — send name and $2.00—and receive $ regular size assorted prepaid, Send best dealer's name and get the Panty Cross Suggestion Book— “The Daily Meou- Maker. PURITY CROSS MODEL KITCHEN Dept-ar, Orange, New Jersey