Life, 1920-10-07 · page 20 of 56
Life — October 7, 1920 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate satirical sketches mocking early 20th-century American social conventions and consumer behavior. **"Bernice Goes to Be Finished"** depicts anxious parents sending their daughter to an expensive finishing school. The satire targets parental naïveté: parents worry about propriety while Bernice immediately plans to sneak out unchaperoned to meet a boy. The father's quip about judging by price (like a cigar) undercuts the school's prestige. **"A La Mode"** mocks fashion absurdity through a shopper asking a salesman whether a skirt should be "too tight or too short"—satirizing how fashionable women's clothing became impractically revealing. **"Good Start"** ridicules a husband's economizing plan. His wife "economizes" by purchasing expensive office furniture and an adding machine, inverting the stated goal—a common satire on wives' spending habits. All three sketches mock contemporary social pretension, youth rebellion against propriety, and consumer excess dressed as respectability.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
YEARS OF DISCRETION Bernice Goes to Be Finished OTHER: Well, 1 hope I have decided for the best, but 1 can't help being uneasy. Everybody says the school is all right. All I hope for is that she doesn’t come back critical of us and extravagant. Of course, it isn’t as if 1 couldn't trust Bernice. She would never do anything that she knows | wouldn't approve. And she will meet the daughters of some of the best families. I must speak to her about her overshoes again. Fatuer: There's no doubt about its being the best school in the country, if you can go by the price. But you can’t judge a cigar that way. Brotuer Bos: We'll have a little peace in the house now Bernice: I wonder if it's true that you can slip out without a chaperon once in a while. Wouldn't be any fun meeting Billy at the school during the calling hour. His roadster would be wasted. I mustn't forget to leave those overshoes on the train -A La Mode HOPPER: I want to get a fashionable skirt Satestavy: Yes, madam. Will you have it too tight or too short? Good Start ILLIS: 1 told my wife we must begin to economize, and that she must keep account of the household expenses Guus: Is she doing it? “She has made a start. She has bought a two-hundred-and- fifty-dollar desk, a three-hundred-dollar filing cabinet and has ordered a seven-hundred-and-fifty-dollar adding machine.” Si Mouse: THIS MUST BE ONE OF THE AUTOMATIC RESTAU- RANTS I'VE HEARD SO MUCH ABOUT comicbooks.comt