Life, 1922-10-19 · page 15 of 36
Life — October 19, 1922 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes upper-class women's shopping habits through humorous poetry about department store departments. The central illustration depicts an elaborately dressed woman surrounded by luxury goods and servants, emphasizing conspicuous consumption. The sections mock specific shopping obsessions: "Windows" critiques the allure of display; "Millinery" jokes about hat fashion being harder to navigate than deeper aesthetic questions; "Furniture" and "Rugs" humorously describe impractical luxury purchases (robin's-blue breakfast sets, Old Japan rugs); "At the Perfume Counter" and "Silks and Satins" celebrate material excess. The "Home" section concludes with ironic exhaustion—the shopper is "worn down to a shred" despite buying only "needles and a spool of thread." The satire targets women's frivolous materialism and shopping addiction as viewed by early 20th-century satirists.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Windows ONG rows of gleaming, glittering delights, One sacred street of feminine display, Seductive as the scented, tropic nights, Refreshing as the noon rain in the May. From every shore the ardent tides embrace, Across the untracked highways of the sea, Come silks, and furs, and filmy, webby lace To hold me in enraptured réverie. Pour ali your treasures wide! My hungry eyes, The windows of my heart, will feast thereon; On ruby beauty, sapphires that the skies Have lavished all their artistry upon. To all my soul goes out in joy, and then My husland’s income calls it back again. cAillinery it harder now to dodge the curse popular approval in a hat. | yet I cannot judge myself by that— Is their taste better, or has mine grown worse? XO a Furniture I'd buy that breakfast set of robin’s blue, If I could find a négligée that hue. Rugs In this rug is Old Japan, Gleaming pearl in sapphire seas. Close my eyes and then I can Smell its cherry-scented breeze. Vagrant petals flutter down From the patriarchal trees. ’s the tag. (Inspection. Frown.) Pshaw! The shoddy thing’s Chinese. At the Perfume Counter Tawdry, shabby little things; Aren't they the perfect frights? Nearly all wear diamond rings. Love is blind to funny sights! What’s on sale to lure them so? Zephyrs’ Fragrance; mine! I vow It is mine no longer, though; Mine is made to order now. Silks and Satins Color and’ splendor; orchids and blues, Purples as royal as emperors’ pride; Greens with a hint in their sheen of the dews, Whites to be stained by the tears of the bride. Beauty and riches; yellows and jades, Pinks that were snatched from the first-blooming rose; Silvers as soft as the moon when it fades, Crimsons that mirrored the day at its close. Silken and satin; henna and mauve, Lavender, ivory, turquoise, I see; Mulberry, violet, ev'ry shade wove— And none in a tint that’s becoming to me. Home Shopping is a task to me. Dear! I’m worn down to a shred. I’m fatigued to misery, So I’m going straight to bed. What I bought? Oh! Let me see: Needles and a spool of thread. Bo 6 comicbooks.com