Life, 1923-12-20 · page 12 of 36
Life — December 20, 1923 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Mrs. Peps Diary* presents a satirical illustration of a domestic scene. The cartoon shows a man seated while a nurse delivers news of triplets, to which he responds "PUNG!" (apparently an exclamation of dismay or resignation). The humor targets middle-class anxieties about large families and financial burden. The man's reaction—seemingly shocked or displeased at fathering triplets—satirizes contemporary attitudes toward childbearing and domestic responsibility. The diary entries above reference shopping for jewelry and holiday social obligations, suggesting the author's broader satirical commentary on women's consumer habits and social performance. The cartoon uses the father's comical distress to mock both masculine pride in paternity and the economic pressures of supporting multiple children, reflecting early 20th-century social concerns about family size and class status.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LIFE - Up very betimes, but could not persuade my December husband, poor wretch, to go with me to select Bth a rug for his Aunt Caroline. The men in charge of the rug departments are always aged, he quoth, and it breaks my heart to see them dragging their wares to and fro. So off on the errand alone, and thence to luncheon at a publick with Ethel Grose, and when we spoke of the boredom of anointing one’s skin with lotions against the ravages of cold weather, I remarked on not having yet exhausted the jar of unguent I bought when I was in Smith College, but Ethel said, That is naught; I still have the same cold I caught freshman year. Thence to a vaudeville house, and when the woman in front of me removed her cloche hat, her coiffure blew out enough to obscure the stage, and I did lean forward and whisper, Your hat doesn’t bother me at all. So she donned it again. T have learned that Sam's gift is not the new encyclopedia, as I erst- while feared, and now I am concerned lest it be a a new fitted bag, but I trust not, for the nail files and brushes of such an equipment are ineffective, and I had liefer he would choose among several things which come to mind. Lay late, reading my letters and hardening my heart against the numerous appeals for charity with which the first post is always December 14th laden, but Lord! we are not rich enough to give to every- thing, however respectable the patroness list. Being struck suddenly with the fatuous impossibility of living one more Hi CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE THE FATHER OF TRIPLETS. minute of life without a new evening cloak, I fared forth to a shop, where I found a model which they told me was designed by the great Vionnet of Paris, but I am sure that angels made it specially for me in heaven, so I bought it at a price which I can ill afford, which endears it to me the more, and I pray that all the world save Sam will mark my splendor. To a big lun- cheon at Alice Ely’s, and forced to talk much with a woman whose every statement struck me as heresy, some of them bearing on matters close to my heart, too. I answered naught but Yea, Yea! for Lord! I am no contender and believe in answering a fool according to his folly, yet I was at some pains to refrain from audible laughter when she said that anybody could write a sonnet. Up and walking through the town, and greatly December excited at passing the jewel shop in Forty- 15th sixth Street to mark the disappearance of the rose diamond ring I covet which had been in the window for four years, and now I burn with curiosity to know if it be sold and if so, to whom, but I have not the courage to enter and inquire, having priced it so frequently in the past. I doubt, however, that I can hold out. Met Sam for luncheon, he highly pleased that an acquaintance, in asking after me, had added that he always thought of me as rolling a hoop or playing with a balloon, so I feigned mirth at the feeble jest. This day I did begin the use of an eye- brow pencil. Baird Leonard. a rit i TT ] i i i ‘tL me Proud Father: unc! comicbooks.com