Life, 1925-05-28 · page 23 of 36
Life — May 28, 1925 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains nostalgia and social commentary about 1890s American life. A reader's letter praises Life's satirical drawings of the "Dull Nineties," arguing the era was actually pleasant—prettier girls, bluer skies—unlike the current 1920s with its "poison, wood-alcohol, bootleggers" and Prohibition-era problems. The poem "Paterfamilias" portrays a businessman as noble and self-sacrificing, working ceaselessly for his family despite being called dull and eating too fast. The cartoon "The Gay Nineties" depicts a livery-stable horse and carriage from that era, humorously noting the horse's habit of awkwardly positioning its tail over the reins whenever passing acquaintances. The brief joke "Lost Incentive" quips that a woman lost her divorce incentive when her fiancé ended their engagement—suggesting marital dissatisfaction was common enough to contemplate divorce. Overall, the page mixes genuine nostalgia for pre-Prohibition America with gentle mockery of both past and present social conventions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
* LIFE From an Old Subscriber To tre Epttor or Lire. Sir: The pictures which you are now publishing intended to satirize the supposed dullness of the early nineties arc very wnusing and as art, excellent, but, alas, how far from the truth! Won't you get your artist to draw a few more under such titles as—Opening the Bottled Beer at a Picnic in the Dull Nineties—Dining in the Dull Nineties (Instructing the Waiter on the Brand of Champagne)—Traveling in the Dull Nineties (Consulting the Pullman Porter as to Whether It Takes Him Four Minutes or Five Minutes to Get a Scotch and Soda at Midnight)—and, lastly—Home Life in the Dull Nineties (Two Old Friends Drinking a Night Cap of Hot Toddy). And let me assure you, as one who lived and loafed in the Dull Nineties, that the girls were prettier, the grass was reener, and the sky was bluer than it ever has been since. now—poison, wood-alcohol, bootleggers, spics, legislation, pression—help! Let us all get to a nunnery and nun it out the rest of our lives. Yours, supported, I know, by thousands of elderly witnesses, Srerues Leacock Montreal, Canada, May 3, Paterfamilias EFORE the others he is out of bed, And scans his paper at the breakfast-table: Nervous, impatient, he is hardly able To meet his office-letters without dread. A hundred details battle through his head : A conference, the telephone, the cable ; The buzzing of the Market's tower of Babel— The earning of his family’s daily bread. They call him dull and “he cats too fast"— “He has no time.” His children and his wife Regard his “habits” with a look aghast. never know the fineness of his plan, The campaign over only with his life: Unselfish to the end—a Business Man. Ruth Wright Kauffman, Lost Incentive MOGENE: I thought that Gladys was going to divorce her husband. Frances: Oh, she was, but her fiancé broke off their engagement ! 7 AACA hen SANS sa ent So areas S iH | age, fuigs | rlid in ese PLUG Life THE sites THE GAY NINETIES THE NIFTY LITTLE LIVERY STABLE “RI DATED UP POR WEEKS IN ADVANCE. TURN UP EVERY SIDE STREET, AND. “WITH THE RED WHEELS AND RUBBER TIRES, WHICH WAS ALSO THE USUAL LIVERY STABLE TIORSE WHO WANTED TO ayS MANAGED TO GET HIS TAM. OVER A REIN JUST AS YOU WERE, PASSING SOMEBODY YOU KNEW. comicbooks.com