Life, 1922-11-09 · page 24 of 36
Life — November 9, 1922 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct pieces of social satire: **The Poem (upper section):** A romantic complaint where a man laments his absent girlfriend Alice, who travels constantly and sends only postcards from exotic locations worldwide (Florence, Berlin, Tokyo, etc.). He's become an unwilling "postcard collector" and expert on stamps, reduced to receiving only generic messages saying "I wish you were here." The satire mocks both the tedium of receiving tourist postcards and the dismissiveness of someone too busy traveling to write genuine letters. The reference to "Thomas F. Cook" (likely Thomas Cook, the famous travel company founder) reinforces the theme—he wishes he could travel rather than stay home waiting. **The Cartoon (lower section):** A domestic scene where two women discuss a third, Carrie, who is losing weight. One assumes she's dieting; the other reveals her husband "belittles her"—a dark joke suggesting emotional abuse is causing her weight loss, not deliberate dieting. Both pieces satirize relationship dissatisfaction in early 20th-century courtship and marriage conventions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE The Last Resort “ ALICE, where art thou?” In what foreign sector? Pictures of statues and marble museums, Whither away on your long distance tramps? “Fuji at Sunrise,” “The Gardens at Kew,” You, who have made me a postcard collector, Portraits of depots, and grim mausoleums— Also a bit of an expert on stamps. These I receive when I’m yearning for you, For, in the course of your peregrinations Alice, my love never knows an abatement, Over the face of this jolly old sphere, But, though I miss you each day in the year, All that I’ve gleaned from your lengthy vacations All that I get is a card, with the statement— Is postcards, indited, “I wish you were here.” “This is Loch Lomond—I wish you were here.” Cards from Taormina, Postcards from Florence, Nice, Pasadena, Athens, St. Lawrence, Deauville and Trouville, Crete and Quebec, Skagerak, Cattegat, Banff and Berlin, Naples, Darjeeling, Petrograd, Plassis, Tokio, Ealing, Thebes, Tallahassee, Hesperus Point, with “A View of the Wreck.” Lake Minnetonka—“as Viewed from the Inn.” Yes, I have seen them, depicted in color, All of the places in Baedeker’s book, Making my dullish existence seem duller, Making me wish I was Thomas F. Cook. So, if I knew what your present address is, Whether in Brussels, Miami or Rome, Gladly I’d forward this line, with caresses, “X marks my window—I wish you’d come home.” RES. “Since her marriage Carrie is losing pounds and pounds. Is she dieting?” “No, she explains that her husband belittles her.” comicbooks.com