Life, 1925-07-02 · page 27 of 47
Life — July 2, 1925 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"The Gay Nineties" cartoon** satirizes a fashion trend: men wearing trousers with cuffs (a new style at the time). The joke shows a man so concerned with maintaining the appearance of his fashionable cuffed trousers that when asked a simple question about London rain, he's anxiously worried the answer might require him to look down, potentially compromising his composure and the crisp presentation of his new pants. It's mocking vanity and men's self-consciousness about following fashion trends. **"Jonesville Plans a Week-End"** depicts generational change through a traveling salesman's observation: modern shop owners want three-day weekends for leisure (house parties), whereas the previous generation (their fathers) never took even single days off. The satire critiques how newfound prosperity and leisure attitudes are making younger businessmen prioritize pleasure over the work ethic their fathers embodied—a common post-WWI anxiety about changing American values. Both pieces reflect 1920s social commentary on modernization, fashion consciousness, and shifting work culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE GAY NINETIES “HEY, MISTER! IS IT RACNING IN LONDON?” (A disciple of the new-style trousers with cuffs found a considerable demand upon his poise and fortitude.) Jonesville Plans a Week-End - HEN I first started making Jonesville, thirty years ago, a good many o’ th’ merchants would keep open th’ morning of the Fourth o’ July an’ close up in th’ afternoon for th’ celebration; but I was just around talkin’ to the proprietor o’ th’ Bon Marché, an’ he’s tryin’ to get the rest of th’ storekeepers t’ close on Monday, too, seein’ the Fourth falls on Saturday this year. He wants to have one o’ those triple holidays that was so common when th’ boys was fightin’ over in France.” The gray-haired traveling salesman leaned against the marble desk of the Hotel New Trianon and watched the Kiwanis Club assembling for the weekly luncheon in the Olympian Room. “He says he's invited to a house party in the Wisconsin dells an’ he's afraid if he has to rush back he'll offend his host. The fact is, neither the business nor the house party'd suffer if he'd get wrecked half-way between. I used to sell his father when the Bon Marché was just Taylor's drygoods store. The old man never took any single week-ends, let alone triple ones, an’ that’s the reason this fellow can afford to worry over the calendar.” McCready Huston. Up to Expectations “LJOW does your daughter like that horseback camp she’s attending ?” “Oh, I can tell that she’s got a big kick out of it.” comicbooks.com