Life, 1919-12-04 · page 22 of 80
Life — December 4, 1919 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This two-part comic uses parallel structure to satirize domestic gender roles. The male host boasts about acquiring a prized mounted fish through sportmanship and skill—hunting, patience, proper technique. The female hostess describes obtaining her "treasure" in identical language: a skilled cook, pursued with equal difficulty through searching, the "right bait," and landing her. The joke exposes how women's domestic achievement—securing household help—mirrors men's sporting triumphs in seriousness and effort, yet the comparison reveals the absurdity of treating servant acquisition as equivalent to sportsman's pride. It's satirizing both masculine vanity about fishing and the class dynamics of early 20th-century household management, where finding reliable domestic workers was genuinely competitive among housewives. The second illustration, "The Interrupted Ghost Story," appears unrelated—showing a family gathered around a fireplace, likely a separate comic vignette about supernatural storytelling.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Treasures HE host showed his guest his most valued possession, His pride and triumph, The one thing he had Which was rare and coveted. He told of the difficulty of getting it, Of finding the proper waters, Of securing just the right bait. Of obtaining the right weather condi- tions, Of the skill needed to land him. It was a fish on the wall, recently mounted. Both men were sportsmen. The guest was consumed with envy The hostess showed her guest her most valued possession, Her pride and triumph, The one thing she had Which was rare and coveted. She told of the difficulty of getting it, Of finding the proper place to search, Of securing just the right bait, Of obtaining the right conditions, Of the skill needed to land her. Tt was a cook, in the kitchen, recently hired Both women were housekeepers. The guest was consumed with envy. “NO, THITH ITHN’T MITHITH: JONETH, MITHITH JONETH ITH OUT. THITH ITH MITH JONETH” THE INTERRUPTED GHOST STORY comicbooks.comym