Life, 1921-08-18 · page 9 of 35
Life — August 18, 1921 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon depicts a beach scene where a man is being told "Hey, Mister, yer wife's drownin'!" He responds dismissively: "Oh! Nonsense, my boy! Why, I'm not even married!" The satire appears to be a simple joke about a bachelor's indifference to a drowning woman—playing on period attitudes about unmarried men having no responsibility toward unknown women. The humor relies on the absurdist logic of his response: he denies responsibility because she isn't *his* wife, implying he'd only care if she were. The accompanying text discusses hotel and bathing conditions at Armenian resorts, suggesting this cartoon illustrates contemporary beach culture and social attitudes of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
August 18 — “Oh! f the rooms are seen the windmill k of the hotel, the poultry-yard, and the swing in which’the bus-drivers tease the waitresses and chamber-maids. In two-thirds of the hotels along the coast it was found that at least once a week during the summer an Armenian sellin: silk shawls and table-covers drops in for a chat and preempts the hotel parlor for display purposes. If people ever sat in the hotel parlor this would seriosly inconvenience them, but as no one ver does, this is not quite so serious a condition, It was also found that in the mat- tress 's of a large majority of the hotels puficd wheat had been substituted for the conv ‘ntional stuffing. rest in b: Social Conditions ‘The sub-committee on Social Condi- tions was scarcely able to report, so grim we the facts that it found at hand. Witnesses testified that at almost every bathing-beach along the coast men “Hey, Mister, yer wife’s drownin’!” Nonsense, my boy! could be seen wearing bathing-suits. with sleeves covering the entire upper arm. Such bathers always wear their bath- house keys around their necks, it is said. And they never go into the water with- out first wetting their chests. Some- times they come right out again after that, and spend the rest of the time shivering on the beach. It was testified that every time a woman goes up or down the steps of a hotel, a murmur of disapprobation runs left and right along the rocking-chairs on the porch. A special report has been issued by the sub-committee, bound in plain covers and of a limited edition, con- taining the remarks that are made by the occupants of the chairs, and will be mailed to anyone on request, provided the applicant is over twenty-one. (Report on Mountain Resorts to Follow) ‘O be weighed in the social scale it seems necessary to have a cash bal- ance. Why, I'm not even married!” Epitaph for Any New Yorker » who all my life had hurried, Came to Peter’s crowded gate; And, as usual, was worried, Fearing that I might be late. So, when I began to jostle (I forgot that I was dead) Patient smiled the old Apostle: “Take your Eternity,” he said. Christopher Morley. Famous Sayings of Famous Men (As gathered from the daily papers) O which Senator Lodge replied: Continued on page 18. Mr. Edison asked the following ques- tion: shrdlu shrdlu etaoin. Babe Ruth replied to the umpire: Con- tinued in red ink on this page. Doctor Eliot’s answer was as follows: CITY EDTN ADD DOC ELIOT SPEECH. comicbooks.com