Life, 1924-04-03 · page 23 of 60
Life — April 3, 1924 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous poem by Mabel Houghton Colyer about a lady named Nell experiencing wardrobe malfunction. The illustrated narrative describes her crossing a bridge when her quilted petticoat falls down—a mortifying accident in the era when such undergarments were essential to modesty. The satire targets Victorian propriety: the poem sympathetically catalogs Nell's distress (torn stockings, exposed undergarments) while mocking the absurdity of women's fashion constraints. The punchline celebrates modern times: "thank our stars that now, today / We have no petticoats to lose!" The accompanying sketches show a woman in period dress and figures observing her predicament. The joke reflects early-to-mid 20th-century attitudes toward women's liberation from restrictive Victorian clothing—positioning contemporary readers as enlightened compared to previous generations' fashion tyranny.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Dreadful Adventure NC The tale I a 7 The lovely lady. M Did | She w Or some And when she Why—down Can you ine such distress As vexed the lovely lady Nell? Perchance she wore a filmy dres ner disloyal “petty ‘hance T stockings were t re Not to make her To have her “petty” act t Ah, shall we not in fitti Upon poor Nellie’s anguish mu And thank our stars that now We have no petticoats to lose! Mabel Houghton Colly comicbooks.com