Life, 1925-03-19 · page 31 of 36
Life — March 19, 1925 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains satirical humor typical of 1920s Life magazine, mixing editorial cartoons with advertisements. **"Mrs. Pep's Diary"** is a gossipy society column mocking upper-class domestic life. The small cartoon illustrates a Paris bon mot: a woman asks her friend "Melania" what she'd do if she could play piano as well as the speaker; Melania replies she'd "take lessons"—a joke about female vanity and one-upmanship among society women. **"Behind the Scenes"** is a courtroom satire about a marital desertion case. The humor lies in the twist: the wife's seemingly innocent habits (leaving toothpaste caps off, monopolizing closet space, favoring canned soup, etc.) are revealed through cross-examination as grounds for the husband's departure. The jury acquits him anyway. The joke mocks both the triviality of marital complaints and the legal system's absurdity in handling divorce cases. The remainder consists of period advertisements for smoking pipes and shaving cream—typical commercial content for the magazine.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Mrs. Pep’s Diary (Continued from page 12) And forasmuch as I thought she would w, I asked H. who said that every weman was either happily married or 1 interior decorator, but she could not tell me, recalling only that Oscar Wilde had said some women were mothers and me were mistress Whereupon we ill to discussing whether any woman a SS “WHAT WOULD YOU DO, MELANIA, IP YOU COULD PLAY THE PIANO LIKE ME?” “V'D TAKE LESSO! —Sans-Gene (Paris). we could name was both of the latter, and the only one that came to mind was Lady Macbeth. My husband, poor wretch, March jn a great wax this morn- Ith ing because he could not connect with his pedical surgeon before setting off for the links, and I did seck to soothe him by reminding him of the splendid fee he would have for winning the Arbuthne but he waved me off, bawling, W the goad of money if your feet hurt? So T did telephone every patient of Dr. Dardia’s whose name I knew, and found him in the next square but one, for which J thanked God, and Sam, his docile sel again, thanked me,...Reading all the day in Floyd Dell's “This Mad Ideal,” which plays up a young girl's relin- quishing her childhood suitor for fear of what marriage might do to their affection. Lord! Surely fifteen out of twenty damsels do that every day of the year, and without thinking them- selves material for copy, neither. Baird Leonard. 29 Behind the Scenes Ir was evidently a clear-cut case of desertion. Her lawyer proved that he had deliberately abandoned her some six months before, and gone to live in the Elks’ Club. Mere chance had dis- closed the miscreant's whereabouts. The jury was primed. Then, by adroit cross-questioning, the defendant's counsel brought out the fact that she had —sharpened her eyebrow pencil with his razor —told her friends how much he was making —asked him, on alternate nights, why he didn’t live in his old office —always favored canned soup —preempted eight out of the ten hooks in the closet —played golf (with him) insisted on the window-regulating privilege at night —believed what her mother told her —suspected his scrawny secretary and invariably left the cap off the tooth- paste tube! Acquittal, naturally, resulted on the first ballot. S.J. KOBLER AIR AND WATER PEARL PIPE 4 regular pipe absorbing 19% Nicotin, 85° Pyridia, 33°; Ammoniac. Cool mild emoke. $5.90. Literature tree. Kebler & Co, tne, $24 26th St, Guttenberg, West New York, N. J, Ten Minutes More for Breakfast And time to smile at the Wife. Jfyoushave withBarbasol. Quick, cool,clean. Nobrush. No rub-in. Try it— three times—accord- ing to directions. 35¢ and 65c tubes. your Free Trial ¢ Tube of Barbasol. 4 For Modern Shaving comicbooks.com