Life, 1922-03-30 · page 33 of 34
Life — March 30, 1922 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This article satirizes the burden of spring housecleaning on housewives. The author mocks the romanticization of spring described in magazines, contrasting it with domestic drudgery: women tying towels around their heads to clean house. The "martyr to science" reference likely alludes to how housewives view themselves—forced into exhausting labor (scrubbing, washing) that modern appliances and "Popular Mechanics" magazine promised would liberate them. Instead, the technology brought *more* expectations for cleanliness and domestic perfection. The piece's tone is sympathetic to women's labor while gently mocking both the magazines that oversold spring's romantic potential and the wives who internalize impossible domestic standards. It reflects 1920s anxieties about modernity, technology, and women's roles—highlighting the gap between progress-promised leisure and lived exhaustion.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
1 the look wns vis alled toast ‘ate's era ime! with vegan rst, par- about you : but the age. Free- indly mah ost. iD” ete. ete. ork. THE SILENT DRAMA Recent Developments (The scgular Silent Drama department will be found on page 24.) Mistress of the World. Paramount.— Twenty reels of melodrama on a colossal scale, There are four instalments, of which the third is the best. The Cradle Buster. Warren.—Pleasant little comedy with Glenn Hunter in the leading rdle. The Prodigal Judge. Vitagraph— Maclyn Arbuckle as a genial old soul who wanders around from adventure to ad- venture, and has an excellent time of it. Orphans of the Storm. United Artists. —Griffith turns his attention to the French Revolution in a picture that can be ranked with the greatest that he has ever done. Foolish Wives. de luxe Moran of the Lady Letty. Paramount. —A yivid sea story, with Dorothy Dal- ton, Rodolph Valentino and Walter Long knocking each other about the decks. One Glorious Day. Paramount—A whimsical comedy, in which Will Rogers co-stars with an unborn spirit. Penrod, First National—Neilan’s pro- duction of Tarkington’s stories. It might be better, Back Pay. Paramount.—Well-directed, well-written and well-acted drama about a girl who stumbled into one of those pit- falls that are always being dug up in New York. Turn to the Right. Metro—Fairly amusing adaptation of Winchell Smith's popular comedy. A Doll’s House. United Artists —Nazi- mova as Nora, the most famous of all the govrs-out-into-the-night, in an excel- lent interpretation of Ibsen’s play. ‘TRADE MARK REG. U. $. PAT. OFF. THE ORIGINAL wipe GARTER Wear them a week at Our Risk If sou hesitate to try the E, Z, Garter be- cause you have been disappointed by imita. tions that lack the patented E. Z. features— cr \\ you doubt that a garter can really, sup- port the sock (as the E. Z. does) without depending on tightness or adjustments— The: remember that you can buy a pair of E. 7. 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Branch De Luxe 6717 ~Fifth Avenue Martyrs to Science PRING days are not everything they were pictured in the January mag- azines. Many a home that is paid for hides a sorrow. From the matin of the English sparrow to the hush that follows the twilight passage of the ice- cream cone wagon, many a wife is yearning to tie a towel around her head, seize her broom, and start house- cleaning. A martyr to science, she feels herself nothing but a heroine out of Popular Mechanics. She would like to set the furniture out in the yard, throw open the doors and windows and get down on her hands and knees for a soul-satisfying, ancestral orgy with the scrubbing brush. But she cannot do that without being a traitor to the doting husband who brought the labor-saving electri- DUSKY COYNESS Congo Real-Estate Dealer: Still got a nice hut, Miss Lily; fo’ bits a da “Nossuh, Mistuh White, I ain't go’ to no seashore, git mah skin all sun- —Le Journal’ Amusant (Paris). cal devices home. She remembers his foolish smile and does not have the heart. Labor saving? Who wants to save a little labor if she can have a good time? These men! 1105 But this thing of having all the housework, including washing and ironing, done by eight-thirty in the morning, and sitting around admiring the new Oriental oilcloth rug and wait- ing for a telephone call from another electrical housewife to go to the movies at 11—it is not natural. The suppressed desire to clean house will tell on the race in the end. The first thing we know, three-year-olds will display a passion for soapy water. Better mild indulgence in housecleaning now than wrecked womanhood in the future. McCready Huston. Chauve-Souris We are very glad you're with us, Chauve-Souris, We are very glad to know you, Chauve-Souris, For you've beauty, brain and humor, And we're glad you're all the rumor, And we are the proud consumer, Chauve-Souris. G. H. 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