Life, 1920-01-01 · page 38 of 48
Life — January 1, 1920 — page 38: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This comic sketch satirizes nagging wives and automobile culture in the early 1900s. Mrs. Henry Baldwin repeatedly scolds her husband Henry about his reckless driving, while also criticizing a younger woman's scandalous fashion—a low-backed gown that reveals her shoulder blades and bare back. The humor targets several social anxieties: wives' complaints about dangerous speeding, the shock of women's increasingly revealing clothing (shoulder-baring dresses were considered daring), and the distraction young women posed to respectable married men. Henry can't concentrate on driving because of both his wife's constant interruptions and the sight of the immodestly dressed woman. The sketch mocks both Henry's inability to satisfy his wife and the tension between new female fashion and traditional propriety. A reference to "Barney Oldfield" (a famous racecar driver) jokes that Henry fancies himself a daredevil. The accompanying Empire Silk advertisement sells men's dress shirts—practical attire for the respectable gentleman, unlike the scandalous fashions troubling Mrs. Baldwin.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE SUPREMI SILK SHIRTING FOR MEN €mpire’ OOICiA SILKS y ( ¢ . RB: sure to look for the name on the selvage.or the label in the shirts. Send for book of new patterns. Empire silk Co. 315 Fourth Avenue, New York Back-Seat Stuff Characters, in the order of their importance Mrs. Henry Baldwin, Mrs. Listner, Mr. Henry Baldwin OW, HENRY, I DON’T WANT YOU TO GO as FAST AS YOU DID THE OTHER DAY. Mrs NER DO LIKE IT. Why, my dear, she over. did the thing outrageously. Her gown was the only one all low. NO, THE SHORE ROAD. k ; I'm used to those gowns that have nothing over the shoulders but a string of beads or a wisp of IT IS W WE'LL GO OUT PAST T Js were fastened to two points in front and merely w around her neck! I thought the front was low HENRY BALD. 3 THERE YOU ARE SPEEDING AGAIN. ONLY 2 WELL, IT SEEMED MUCH FASTER THAT TO ME until I saw the back; then it seemed high. Wh beauty she the men HENRY, I DO WISH YOU'D TURN O! FARTHER WHEN WE MEET THO BIG think they see in such a be one could see her shoulder-blades; I heard Hinman called it her coming-out party and the } RY! WHAT IS THé “Is THAT THE DEFERENTIAL? practical short, lace mostly, and so thin that OH, IT THAT NOISE WH WE GO SLOWL when she danced past the lights or stood in front of t ersplacs —well, BUT T He F ING <LE BALDWIN—husband’s salar: small; economize on other things? 3 should judge, and NOT SO FAST, DEAR, DOWN HILL the men all buzzing around like perfect foo! just wouldn't let Henry dance with her and put his hand CAR PASS US on that woman's bare back, and there no other place to put it. Yes, the other men di made an awful DUST! YES, . HENRY, CAN' WE HURRY UP PASS THEM AND GET OUT OF THIS CLOUD? red spot before the evening was half HENRY BALDWIN, THERE YOU ARE SPEEDING AGAIN. You know, last week I let Henry go to the automobile r: ever since he’s seemed to think he’s a Barney Oldpo' something. The Smile Cure OSTON'’S Smile Week decrees that everybody must find a dimple in his cheek that week or he will be “ tagged.” The therapeutic effect of the grin is enormous. I| is 2 form of pacifism that everybody can subscribe to. If you haven't got a smile, invent one. Life is only se- rious because the cynic makes it so. Boston has the Real Idea. Falstaff may yet beat Ibsen in the Hub of Culture. comicbooks.com