Life, 1920-11-25 · page 17 of 45
Life — November 25, 1920 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a two-part satirical piece about workplace dynamics and gender in early 20th-century office culture. **Main Story (top):** A shipping clerk flirts with an attractive young female stockroom worker. When she complains about expensive, poor-quality lunch rooms, he and coworkers suggest she cook lunch in the office—a proposal everyone finds delightfully romantic. The boss overhears and sees profit: combining "domesticity with business." He decides to formalize the arrangement in a memo, transforming casual flirtation into workplace efficiency. **The Satire:** The piece mocks both workplace gender dynamics (the pretty girl as object of male attention) and early management's embrace of domestic labor as cost-cutting. What begins as courtship becomes instrumentalized as business savings. **Lower Cartoon:** Unrelated—a lawyer discusses a "breach of promise" suit (a woman suing a man who broke an engagement), with the plaintiff lamenting she's only two courtroom-appropriate gowns left. This mocks litigation excess and materialism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
~-LIFE. 953 Out of the Multitude of Business “Ho "S every little thing? little stockroom girl. asked the shipping clerk of the She hadn't been working long, and she was rather pretty, and—well, you know how it is. Pretty well,” answered the little girl. “All but lunch. Gee, how T hate those lunch rooms—hot, crowded and smelly—ugh! And the food: “What's the matter with the food?” asked the shipping clerk a bit belligerently, for he bad been eating in lunch rooms for 3 long, long time. “ answered the little one, “I wish I had mea stove and something to cook. I'd show you what the matter was, quick enough. Say,” she continued excitedly, “wouldn't it be fun if there was a stove in this old office—? “Here?” exclaimed the clerk, incredulously “Sure! Gee, I'd cook lunch on it every day. N rooms for me. That let me.” more lunch she added wistfully, “if they'd “That's a good one—cookir ¢ own lunch in a office.” “TL could do it.” The little gi happy thought of it. eyes were sparkling with the And maybe the other girls would be erested and bring stuff in—and Pd cook it for them “Say, kil,” remarked a stenographer who had caught the passant, “speaking of cooking, I wield a rather wicked Gee, wouldn't it be fun! Do your marketing idea «1 skillet myself. before you came down in the morning. Kind of like a party, every da: “Gosh!” sighed the shipping clerk gallantly, “I bet it would taste good. “ Expensive?” But wouldn't it be expensive The little girl dimpled. for ten cents; four plates of soup for fifteen; about a mile of spaghetti for twenty-two- If we all clubbed together: “Ouch!” exclaimed the clerk “ Two-cgg omelet “Don't tell me any more And,” added the crafty little child, “I could cook your lunch t . “Gee! Would you do that? full force of the idea, if you wanted me to. The clerk suddenly felt the and another came over his conscious- ness—a vision of a trim little figure bending happily over a stove, preparing his meal—his meal. “Gee!” he ex- claimed again, and his voice had a tone almost as wistful as the little girl's, “if we only had an old stove.” His hand reached out and caught the fingers of the little girl, She was woman enough and child enough not to liked tl “If we only had a stov was faintly possible © whispered In his inside office, the keen-eared boss chuckled ing domesticity with business, are they?” he “Well, it would be a time-saver. And maybe possible—the idea is practicable Whereupon he carefully inscribed a 1 memorandum pact Henr 7: THEAR, MADAM, THAT YOUR BREACH OF PROMISE SUIT WILL RUN ON FOR ANOTHER WEEK. air Plaintiff; How pistressinc! 1'VE ONLY TWO COWNS LEFT THAT THE COURT HASN'T SEEN. comicbooks.com