Life, 1920-12-09 · page 7 of 44
Life — December 9, 1920 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines poetry with illustration and social commentary on romantic infidelity. The poem "Ballade of Faithless Loves" (left) laments women's unfaithfulness, listing names like Evelyn, Sue, May, Maul, Marjorie, Amy, Margaret, and Helen as examples of romantic betrayal. The illustration (right) depicts a formal social gathering—likely a wealthy drawing room or party—where a man (Stillson, based on the story text) observes a woman he loves flirting with another man. The caption reads: "IS SHE CLEVER?" with the response "YES, QUITE. SHE CONTRIVES TO LET NO ONE SUSPECT HER OF BEING HALF AS STUPID AS SHE REALLY IS." This satirizes upper-class women as manipulative and deceptive in romantic pursuits, reflecting early 20th-century attitudes about gender and courtship.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Ballade of Faithless Loves LAS that I should have to sing Of love, the rosemary, the rue; How maids in love no longer cling To one as they were wont to do; How nowadays they are not true, But seek fresh fields, heart-whole and free, As witness Evelyn and Sue— 1 know they are not true to me! I would I could a metre fling Of faithfulness I never knew, That would with youth and beauty ring; But such a pastime I eschew. I pen a subject sad and blue, Of May and Maud and Marjorie, Of Amy, Marguerite and Lou— 1 know they are not true to me! I idly dreamed I was a King, And happy pictures idly drew Of all the bliss the days would bring When she I loved but gave the cue. But now alas! I sing to you Of sorrow vaster than the sea: Of Kate, of Jane, of Helen too— I know they are not true to me! L'Envoi Dh, Prince, though faithfully I woo, And they swear love and fervently, The girls I worship and pursue— I know they are not true to me! Edmund Leamy. Oh, Yes, This Does Happen TILLSON knew the moment he saw her that he was in love with her. And he knew that she was the kind of girl who would know this—and who would respond already. “T don't even know your name,” he whis- pered, “but I felt instantly that you had carried through to the point where | have arrived. We don’t have to explain any- thing, do we? Because we have both learned the same things.” “It is rather wonderful,” she smiled, “and of course I got it because I felt in- stantly the thing you speak of, although I don’t pretend to understand it.” She had responded to his eyes “Tt lay in the very beginning,” he re- plied. “It's the first contact with eyes that counts—an immediate surrender on both sides—and after that nothing else matters. We were both lost—hopelessly, irretrievably lost.” “Tam married,” she said quite simply, looking around. “So am I,” he said, also looking around. /f SN Y f “ys Fave COLD “Tf I hadn't married the man 1 did, and if 1 didn’t love him in jus do, I never could have understood what you meant,” she said “Neither could 1, “It is these brief moments that, after all, make he replied life worth living.” And then they parted. “Is SHE CLEVER?” “YES, QUITE, SHE CONTRIVES TO LET NO ONE SUSPECT HER OF BEING HALF AS STUPID AS SHE REALLY 1s.” comicbooks.com