Life, 1919-12-04 · page 20 of 80
Life — December 4, 1919 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine presents three separate satirical pieces: **"The Season of Gifts"** — A humorous poem about a serial romantic who has cycled through many girlfriends (named Millie, Sallie, Minnie, Annabel, etc.) and must now buy Christmas presents for all of them, highlighting male infidelity and the financial burden of maintaining multiple romantic interests. **"Yanked Home"** — A joke about a man named Wombat who abruptly leaves a poker game because his wife controls him through "X-science" (likely referring to Christian Science or similar pseudoscience movements popular in the early 20th century). The humor targets both henpecked husbands and women's supposed manipulation of men. **The employer/Perkins cartoon** — Satirizes an employee constantly requesting raises rather than focusing on work productivity. The dog caption offers ironic agreement. **Upper right illustration** — Shows "Christmas greetings from former bunkies in the A.E.F." (American Expeditionary Force in WWI), depicting soldiers in harsh conditions—dark humor about wartime Christmas. The page reflects early 20th-century anxieties about gender relations, workplace dynamics, and war's reality.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Ne —-& - LIFE: The Season of Gifts if ALLIC and gullible, glib and gregarious, I have loved maidens the more and the few, Sizes assorted and shapes multifarious— Millie and Prillie and Sallie and Sue. 1 have loved maidens to bitter satiety, Maidens intelligent, maidens inane, Some of them naughty, some pallid with fi Minnie and Winnie and Julie and Jane. Christmas is coming. I've broken with Annabel, Linda and Leila and Mabel and May; elle, Genevieve, Gwendolyn, Gertie and Gay! Perrin Holmes Lowre: Still there are presents to purchase for Gabri- = am Yanked Home * E were just sitting down to a game of poker when suddenly Wombat scooted out of the room without fe a word.” | “His wife has him under X-science control.” “Ra man looks into a clothes closet and ob- serves the rel. amount of space occupied by his clothing and that of his wife, he wonders— Oh, what does it matter what he wonders? acer onl 2 SS ae Gea Employer: Look WERE, PERKINS, IF YOU WOULD DEVoTE AS MUCH ENERGY TO YOUR WORK AS YOU DO TO ASKING ME 10 RAISE YOUR SALARY, I'D RAISE YOUR SALARY Pup: IT CAN GO SOME. I'LL SAY THAT For IT! comicbooks.comiy