Life, 1923-09-27 · page 12 of 36
Life — September 27, 1923 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features "Mrs. Pep's Diary," a satirical domestic humor column illustrated with a sketch of three fashionable women in conversation. The cartoon caption depicts a wife discussing her husband's financial concerns: she mentions he wanted a divorce but she "can't seem to save the money on the allowance he gives me." The satire targets **marital financial dynamics** of the era—specifically, a wife's limited economic independence and control over household money. The joke's irony: she can't afford to leave her husband because he controls the purse strings so tightly. The diary entries below document mundane domestic life (correspondence, social visits, coffee), reflecting the magazine's satirical focus on upper-class women's leisure culture and domestic preoccupations.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO DIVORCE TOM.” “I WAS, BUT I CAN'T s EM TO SAVE THE MONEY ON THE ALLOWANCE HE GIVES ME.” Nes Lops Diary My husband, poor wretch, up at the crack of dawn this day, and prowling about on his toes in an attempt to be quiet until I was well nigh distraught with him and enjoined him to stamp in order that I might finish out my slumber. Where- upon he did complain unreasonably of the time which must elapse before the servants would prepare his breakfast, and I reminded him of the man on the house party who told Charlie until he had drunk his beaker of coffee, to whom Charles responded, I haven't noted that you amount to much after you've had it....These days am I extremely happy, and inclined to hold with Pippa on cosmic welfare. September It Towne he was no good at all in the morning Lay late, reading the journals, and finding September naught in them of interest to me, as usual. 2lst Frequently do I share the disappointment of Harry Wilson's Bunker Bean in not seeing the name of an acquaintance in the death notices....To luncheon at an inn with W. Hurlbut, and he did tell me how B. Dean had taken the title of his “Lilies of the Field” for a piece in London, and when I asked. how such a thing could bh: William quoth, In England they call it not cricket; over here we call it a scurvy trick....Home early, and | did do on the wig cap of shining gold silk whic! Louisa sent me from Paris and the finest tea gown I ow needing only a long-handled mirror and a fair soprano voice to feel like Thais. But I could do naught about it save put my favorite jazz records on the mechanical bo: and when Sam found me cavorting he shared my merry mood, until he learned that the bootlegger had failed us At my correspondence all the morning, a d: September pressing business, and one at which I do il! 22nd For Lord! I can never think of aught to sa) save that it is or isn’t raining, and why I have a friend left at a distance of more than a hundred miles is beyond me....Kate Mitchell to luncheon, and [ did mark that her habit of interrupting her vis-d-vis in the middle of @ (Continued on page 32) comicbooks.com