Life, 1925-10-22 · page 50 of 74
Life — October 22, 1925 — page 50: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines satirical commentary with period humor. The top section offers social observations: cities breed loneliness; poverty's timing is cruel; polygamy's abolition lets Turks advance civilly; golf requires no truth-telling; prophets state uncomfortable truths. A husband-wife joke plays on radio distraction. The main illustration, titled "The Gay Nineties: The Last Word in Compliments," depicts fashionably dressed women from that era on a city street. The caption reveals the satire: one woman, Etta Purdy, remains silent while her companions gossip. The punchline suggests she's been withdrawn "ever since somebody called her a Gibson Girl"—the era's idealized female beauty standard. The joke implies that being complimented as a Gibson Girl somehow damaged her socially or emotionally, likely mocking how women internalized appearance-based identity during that period. The "Fairy Story" and "Faint Heart" poems offer romantic commentary typical of the magazine's light verse.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
10 From a Club Chair ITIES are the places in which men herd together to be lonesome. eee The tragedy of being poor is that by the time you save cnough money to buy what you want, you don’t want it. eee pw that they have abolished polygamy, the Turks are ready to ad- vance to the two-room-and-kitchenette apartment civi The fascination of golf is that you don’t have to believe anything any one tells you about it. . se A prophet is a#man who tells us things too true to be good. “WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH ETTA PURDY? * LIFE + Crying for the moon is the ideal yearning. There’s no chance of your being disappointed by getting it. eee In an age of flying and radio, it is typical of statesmanship that it should still have its ear to the ground. eee One begins slowly to appreciate the Chinaman’s wisdom. He keeps the re- formers so busy trying to abolish opium that they have no time to notice such a minor comfort as liquor. James Kevin McGuinness. USBAND: Dear, will you please turn off the radio? Wire: But it isn’t on, dear. I was saying—— Now, as THE GAY NINETIES The Last Word in Compliments Feint Heart E said he had not loved before, But now he'd simply lost his head. He said that none could love me mor He would be true till death—he said, His ardor’s limit was the sky, And prettier vows I've never heard, But it is just as well that [ Believed not one delightful wor Lois White Fairy Story CE there was a young co-cd who was invited to two students, one a the other a poor member of the debat- ing team, athletes gave her a pain in the head. She chose the latter, saying SHE HARDLY SPOKE To US.” “OH, SHE'S BEEN THAT WAY EVER SINCE SOMEBODY CALLED HER A GIBSON GIRL.” comicbooks.com