Life, 1924-08-28 · page 14 of 36
Life — August 28, 1924 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The cartoon depicts a long line of identically-dressed geese or ducks in formation, labeled "The Kluntsman's Wife," with the caption mocking a parade-watching wife who complains about not knowing when to clap—satirizing mindless conformity and spousal obedience. The main article, "How One Woman Kept the Budget from the Door," addresses household financial management during the 1920s. It describes a working-class family struggling with tight finances, where the husband (Fred) brings home pay on Thursdays. The text humorously illustrates budgeting challenges: lack of pencils for accounting, and an anecdote about the husband being jailed (with no bail expenses that week, providing dark comic relief). The article reflects Depression-era anxieties about domestic economics and marital financial strain.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Klansman’s W How One Woman Kept HEF s in which to apportion the fam- ily income, all of them unsatisfactory. In our home we have hit upon the most unsatisfactory of all—the budget. If any worse system is known, I hope that my readers will write in and tell about it. Send communications to the Editor of the Worse-than-Budget Department Here is the way we work it. Fred (Fred is not my hus- band, and a perfect darling he is, too) brings home his pay on Thursday night. “Where is the other seventy-five dol- lars, Fred dear?” I say. “What other seventy-five dollars?” Fred asks. “Don't try to pull any of that ‘what other seventy-five dollars’ stuff on me,” I reply, stroking his fore- head. Fred loves to have his forehead stroked, and before I know it he has dropped off to sleep, murmuring. “I must have been robbed.” That cleans up the pay situation. With what is left, we make up our budget. If there isn’t cnough left for a good budget, we piece it out with string and an old. skate-strap. Here is how we do it. We first figure out what we are going to need during the week: meat, fish, food for the fish, eggs, recreation, and whips. We write these items on little slips of paper and put them all in a big hat. Then I pull the hat down over Fred's ears and we both laugh. Sometimes, in making out the budget, we get to fooling like that and it is awfully hard to be serious, especially as once in a while Fred makes my nose bleed. A good way to get around this difficulty is to divorce your husband. “But,” you may say, “I have no clothes to get a divorce in.” If other women had said that, where would the institution of divorce be to-day? I don’t know, I'm sure. We had a lot of trouble at first in making out the budget because we didn’t have any pencils—sharp pencils, at any rate. Then Fred remembered that there was an old linotype are several wi A LOT OF FUN IT IS FOR ME WATCHING JOHN PARADE! I DON’T KNOW WHEN To CLAP. the Budget from the Door machine up in the attic that had been sent us as a wedding- present; so we dragged that down and had it redecorated and in no time were turning out budgets at a great rate. Here is a typical budget, copied just before we tore it up: Week or 1924 1 roast of some sort. Opium ... Extra vests. Fred's bail. Heigh-ho! . L. New York 36 Pittsburgh . +55 42 Chicago ......- 3 44 Brooklyn ...... 48 This particular budget worked out very well, becaus Fred was sent to jail that week; so there was no bail t pay for him and only one mouth to feed. We probably wouldn't have another bit of luck like that again in a year As an alternative plan for adjusting your expenses to fi your income, the following is fairly practicable: Buy a second-hand automobile. Never mind repainting it Just start it going as it is. You and your husband jump in and drive very carefully to the end of the dock at 72nd St. and the Hudson River. Then keep on going. Robert Benchley. HE radio is hardest on those that have to listen to those that listen to it. comicbooks.com