Life, 1924-07-31 · page 21 of 36
Life — July 31, 1924 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two satirical pieces mocking marriage dynamics and human nature. **"Domestic Felicity"** is a dramatic scene depicting a common marital manipulation: the wife manufactures emotional distress (worrying about the Parkers' divorce) to keep her tired husband awake, then punishes him further by falling asleep herself while he lies awake with indigestion from anxiety. The satire exposes how wives weaponize emotional crises to control husbands, and the husband's helpless frustration. **The two fishing cartoons** (captioned "An Old Theory Exploded" and "Guess Who Will Get Most of the Fish" / "You're Wrong") appear to subvert an old saying—likely about women being better at fishing or relationships. The images suggest the opposite outcome. **"The Cheerful Giver"** mocks false charity: a "poor man" begging actually sells ice cream for a living—exposing either beggar fraud or people's naive gullibility. All three pieces ridicule human self-deception and hypocrisy in domestic and social life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SoENE: Any home. Cuaracters: Any husband and any cwife. They have just gone to bed; the husband has closed his eyes and is on borderland between waking and leeping. re: Don't tell me you're asleep SBAND (apologetically): I'm aw- tired. Had a hard day at the fice. (He closes his eyes again.) Wire: I wish I could go to sleep that juickly just once. HusBann (with so much pathos in one that it almost makes him cry ity for himself): Can't remember when I've had such a hard day.. pletely played out. Wire (absolutely untouched); Pooh, you always say that when I want to talk to you at night. Huspanp (hurt that his pathos hasn't gone ): It’s the truth. I'm so tired I'm almost sick. Wire: Well, go to sleep, then. Don't care if I stay awake all night. Huspanb: But why don't you go to sleep too? It's after twelve. *« LIFE * Domestic Felicity Wire: It isn’t because I don't want to. I would if I were a phlegmatic type like you. But I'm so high-strung. Hussanp: Nothing's happened to get you upset, has there? (He is becoming concerned despite his intelligence.) Wire (with a cynical laugh) : Oh, no —nothing at all. Huspann (sitting up in What is it? Tell me, dear. Wirt: No, you go right ahead and go to sleep. I guess I can stand it. Huspann (his heart beating anx- iously) : You must tell me. Tell your hubby, dearie. You mustn't keep any- thing from me. Wire: Well, if you insist. But re- member you made me tell you. (She takes a deep breath.) I heard to-day that the Parkers are going to separate. Hussanp: The who? Oh, the Park- But, good Lord, you haven't had anything to do with them in six years! Wire: I know. But the last time I saw them they seemed such a happy couple, and now a bare six years later— If a thing like that could happen to them, it could happen to any one. It frightens you—a thing like that. alarm) : ers. AN OLD THEORY EXPLODED GUESS WHO WILL GET MOST OF THE FISH 19 Huspanp (angrily): Frightens you, not me! Oh, hell! (fe lies down again, turning his back.) Wire (outraged): Archie! “hell” to me! (She sobs.) (Husband vows to himself he won't turn around. her cry her head off. The sobbing dics down; all is still. He becomes alarmed. What has hap- pened? What is she doing? Worse, what is she thinking? He turns around. ...She is asleep anger, almost nerve and lies av To say loses his ke fuming until after four in the morning, to punish her by getting indigestion from lack of slecp and so having to renew his pills.) Bertram Bloch, The Cheerful Giver “\ JOTHER, have you got a nickel for a poor old man?” “Where's the poor man, my son?” “Down at the corner selling ice-cream cones.” AYS the Cynic: It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all. YOU'RE WRONG comicbooks.com