Life — January 22, 1920 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This is a six-panel comic strip titled "The Follies of 1861" depicting a domestic scene between a husband and wife (Matilda). The satire centers on **the use of bed-warming devices** during winter—specifically a "flatiron" (heated metal plate) as a substitute for a proper bed warmer. The joke unfolds as the wife proudly suggests using the hot flatiron in bed for warmth, the husband reluctantly tries it, and discovers it works reasonably well until the final panel, where he sarcastically rejects the idea as inferior to "an iron" (possibly a stove). The cartoonist (signed "Momuza") is likely satirizing either **wartime privations of 1861** (during early American Civil War period) or **household economy and frugal domestic practices**. The humor derives from the wife's innovation contrasted with the husband's masculine skepticism about practical domestic solutions.