Life, 1923-12-06 · page 46 of 84
Life — December 6, 1923 — page 46: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This humorous story parodies Dickens's *A Christmas Carol* through a cleaning-obsessed woman named Bess Brissell. The satire targets both obsessive domesticity and courtship customs of the era. Bess is pathologically devoted to eliminating dust—her "sworn enemy." When Thomas Marchbanks courts her with a dusting brush (attempting to appeal to her interests), she literally "brushes him off" by using the brush on him repeatedly, treating him like household debris. The dark joke: she violently rejects his romantic gesture. The punchline subverts expectations: rather than marrying for love, Bess marries Hezekiah Skwink, a *brush manufacturer*—a practical union based on her obsession, not romance. The satire mocks 1920s-era gender roles: women defined by domestic labor, and the absurdity of male courtship strategies that completely miss the mark. It's also gentle mockery of excessive cleanliness as a character flaw rather than virtue.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LIFE : A Cleanly Christmas Carol ESS Brissell was the sworn and mortal enemy of rust and her most devout religion was exterminating dust. She hated work and all its pain, but dust she hated worser. She came to look on Work and Dust as twin jinx sent to curse her. “IShe brushed dust off the carpet and she brushed it off the stairs, she brushed it off the davenport and off the parlor chairs; she brushed it off the furniture from every crack and chink, she brushed it off the Bhene raph and off the kitchen sink. “1 She brushed it off the door knobs and she brushed it off the wall; the windows, doors and picture frames — she brushed it off them all. [She brushed it off the whatnot and the organ and the stool, she brushed it off the hanging lamp from every cut glass jew'l; she brushed it off the curtains and the book case and the books, she brushed it off the hat rack and the wardrobe and the hooks. “I She brushed it off of every place the dirty stuff could lurk and hoped that. Christmas Day would bring forgetfulness of work. courted Bess but found the girl refuseful. He sought to win the damsel’s heart by givin; something useful; to her he sent a dusting brush, and followed it quite quickly. She pulverized him on the spot —his dust it settled thickly. “(She brushed him off the carpet and she brushed him off the stairs, she brushed him off the davenport and off the parlor chairs; she brus| him off the furniture from every crack and chink, she brushed him off the phonograph and off the kitchen sink. [She brushed him off the door knobs and she brushed him off the wall; the windows, doors and picture frames she brushed him off them all. “1 She brushed him off the whatnot and the organ’ and the stool, she brushed him off the hanging lamp from every cut Blass jew’); she brushed him off the curtains and the book case and the books, she brushed him off the hat rack and the wardrobe and the hooks. “She brushed him off of everythin, she found in reac! of her — and married Hezekiah Skwink, Brush Manvfacturer! comicbooks.com