Life, 1924-05-15 · page 29 of 46
Life — May 15, 1924 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece mocks both marital discord and medical quackery. A desperate husband consults a "great specialist" about his wife's "fashionitis"—compulsive clothing purchases that drain the family finances. The doctor offers a secret potion to slip into her tea, claiming an English scientist named Wigg invented it to solve this epidemic among wealthy wives. The joke: the "cure" is presented as miraculous, yet the doctor reveals Wigg was exiled to Tasmania—suggesting the remedy either doesn't work or is morally questionable. The husband accepts this dubious solution anyway. This satirizes early 20th-century anxieties about women's fashion spending, the proliferation of dubious medical "treatments," and husbands' powerlessness over their wives' behavior. The cartoon below reinforces the theme with a separate joke about transmitting thoughts to Europe, suggesting Americans view Europeans as intellectually deficient.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Macedonian Cry and the Great Specialist By Rollin Kirby across his desk at the “HE great specialist sat look man who had just been ushered into his office. “What can I do for yc I's not for myself, doctor he queried responded the other. “It My wife—I hardly is in behalf of another that I am here know how to tell you.” “Ye purred the great ms “Well, call it aberration. She is ¢ sce, doctor, my wife has an unhappy—I may es-mad.” ist of a smile to pass over The doctor permitted the My friend, that is one of the commonest forms of feminine derangement. We call it “fashionitis’ How long } The other thought a mc his face before he answered he been this way I should since 1 began to make a little money ment before he replied say—well, ev Luckil have come to the right person. I have a The best part of it is that she will never know This little phial 1 hold ir red into her t it is being administered. s the cure 1 will do the trick A drop or two px Hundreds of husbands my hand con tea or cockt have come to me with just the same problem. I have never had a failure.” “Tell me more about it, doctor. What is it? Where did it come from? The man who invented it should be a na tional hero.” “I will tell you Years ago—very many years ago—F filled with men in just posit desperate—they weresbeing driven to bankru by the accursed French dressmakers. Their womenfolk It is the discovery of an Englishman gland was a country 0. The situation was icy and suicide plunged into an orgy of dresses and millinery. Germany which was just coming into prominence as a world power t the fever through the connecting royal families. scientist named Wigg hit upon. this inally, an Engl remedy. From that time on a marvelotis change took place ; LIFE - ot KR THE RONRED: CAST, FED CELERY, it wa cr Ref lapsed into complete it name for it. As time wer frumpier and frumpier, there cries of ar irom the husbands themselves ckily, W the fc ¢ the ar mm Crown to his appalling mischief, b proven before, authority cannot compel scic so poor Wigg. the hero of yesterday, was t penal colony in Tasmania, where he died During this long dissertation the face of the n chair opposite had perceptibly lengthened “Do you mean, doctor, that if I give on wife there can be no change from what she w that thenceforth she will dress like an Englishw a German?” “I mean just that,” responded the di his hat slowly around in his hands. “I—I—we will let the thing jn a = =\— “T SEE THAT HARVARD PSYCHOLOGISTS ARE GOING TO TRANSMIT THOUGHTS To EUKOrE.” “THAT'S A BLAME GoD IDEA! THEY NEED SOME OVER THERE!” is. € ing up hi The wvercoat, he depa doctor smiled wearily f letters picked up a pile long stamp. deftly removed a check which “Pay Gyppe “My getting s« 0 25,000 frs rm nec fod d that My w clothe The Center of the Mass R! SH piker Hour subway t W hat’s comicbooks.com