Life, 1921-08-04 · page 12 of 34
Life — August 4, 1921 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main illustration shows a couple viewing a landscape with a body of water. The caption reads: "He: How beautiful! She: Yes, isn't she! That is my eldest daughter, Harriet." This is a visual joke playing on the double meaning of "she"—the man admires the scenery, but the woman interprets his compliment as directed toward her daughter, humorously suggesting maternal pride (or perhaps that the daughter resembles the landscape aesthetically). Below is a satirical piece titled "Denaturing the Cave Men," which lists humorous "rules" for modern courtship, mocking overly restrictive social regulations on young couples. It parodies how society attempts to control romantic behavior through elaborate restrictions. A brief comedy piece, "So This Is a Free Country," concludes the page with contradictory orders from various authority figures, ironically commenting on lack of personal freedom.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
He: How beautiful! She: Yes, isn’t she! That is my eldest daughter, Harriet. Denaturing the Cave Men OMES the information from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago that cave men were most considerate in their wooing and gentle to their mates. Wall scratchings in one of the caves, when translated, were found to be a complete set of rules of deportment for young bach- elors desirous of ending their state of single blessedness. An abstract of the rules follows. 1. Spikes must be removed from clubs in the mating season. Any man found walloping his fiancée with a spiked club will be haled before the tribunal of women, made to pose for twenty-four hours as a clothes form and then thrown to the dinosaurs. 2. Rocks over six inches in diameter will be used under no circumstances. 3. A clean knockout will be considered more favorably than consent obtained by persistent battering. 4. Hair pulling must be done in proportion with the length and amount of the hair. 5. ‘No girl, however coy, is to be held under water for more than two minutes at a time. 6. Pet sabre-tooth tigers, brontosaurs measuring over half a mile square and trick pterodactyls are not to be used to influence nervous and neurotic subjects. 7. No girl, at any time, under any circumstances is to suffer the indignity of being made to get off the back of a mastodon and walk home. 8. Attempts to ingratiate prospective fathers-in-law by walloping prospective mothers-in-law will be severely dealt with, 9. Kicks must be delivered with the side of the foot only. 10. The proposed benedict will assume full responsibility for any permanent injuries sustained by the object of his affections. Under penalty of being fed to the megalosaurians, or worse, Henry William Hanemann. So This Is a Free Country “QTEP lively,” says the guard in the subway. “Move on,” says the policeman. “Don’t walk on the grass,” reads the sign in the park. “Grape juice,” says the bartender. comicbooks.com