Life, 1926-03-04 · page 16 of 40
Life — March 4, 1926 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features a diary entry satirizing domestic life and modern technology. The main illustration, captioned "The Influence of the Loud-Speaker on the American Home," depicts a chaotic living room where a radio speaker dominates the space, with family members scattered about in disarray—some appearing agitated or distressed. The satire targets how early radios disrupted household dynamics. The diary entry recounts personal grievances (a servant's dismissal, birthday gift troubles) but emphasizes the radio's arrival as a major household event, suggesting Americans were becoming comically obsessed with this new technology. The joke: radios were invading American homes so rapidly and thoroughly that they were reshaping family life and domestic order, often chaotically. This captures 1920s anxiety about technology's transformative social impact.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
\4 - LIFE - er with delight over the receipt of an unexpected pres ut it wa nought but the garbage Awake bk ing in the publick prints And Octavia B 7th how Mr. and Mrs. Still the approach of hard coal year, I ed three weeks ago at February foey did tell how, at Bloomingdale's her last’ birthd. d forgotten. So up 2 and did on my brown Balbriggan man have become reconciled after their friend had interviewed one of ich fits me ill about the neck * long and disgraceful bicke I could Now, I do not want to which I do wear when I am certain of not find it in my heart to cherish agai g ay meeting no one Sam a grievance which had not lasted y whom I shall ever twenty-four hours, so did bespeak something she encounter again, ' fair at once, to his gre rpri like for for Lord! one can whereupon he did suggest, without any present not cast away machination on my ¥ lo pl Lizzie, whole garments for chase at his expen am ng that she a whim until one set which I have coveted. Then we fell re needs and has given them at a-gossiping about acquaintance, might not think « least half a dozen especial of M. T., a lamentable wr buying for herseli wearings. Then to who is forever complaining of th whereto Lizzie re Saks’s shop, where that defection in individuals and refer- joined, She needs a Miss McDougall in ring to h as a gentle w double boiler the adjustment bu Sam vouct . A gentleman needs no Won a wager reau did sve to it bush, but he certainly needs good wine. this night — from THE RADIO BUG that I got a new He did tell, too, of an afternoon Larry — Dickir bag and three dol wherein M. T. had got halfway to his as to whether and her lars ar five cents in money to drawing-room fireplace with a log of — new spouse woul 1 us for supper, compensate for the old purse I leit at wood and had then taken it back to Larry holding that Sabbath solitude the counter three weeks ago and @hich box, saying, Wait a minute—I've got a was a honeym« an argument — was lost in delivery, which pleased me tler to do this....A great crowd at — which I could noi gainsay, but | mightily; but when Sam heard of it, he our house for tea, and the talk t have noticed that when people wait as berated me for accepting cash in to “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” which — long as thos » wed, such good in- the transaction, and went on at a great is now in much demand at the local tentions as going to church by day and rate about the absence of honour in booksellers’, I did state that my own reading “The Decline and Fall of the women, and, albeit I am certain he blondness had been unmistakab) Roman Empire” aloud by night go — spoke in jest, did succeed in dimmir the city took to soft coal, w ay when an attractive invitation my pleasure a bit, the brute,...Bob Ralph Crews. said, In ott . comes along Akin to dinner, and we fell a-talking of our first and early libations, and I did i — oe recall the time when I travelled to Il | Aree Som ——— linois to visit my father, who was stop- j ping at an inn, and carried along bottle of cocktayles to which Tw 4 fcarful of attracting notice by orderin g up cracked ice, and so did frappe them = ; i with icicles which I artfully plucked a from the window ledge at the risk of 4 Yt. my life. I was twenty-five years old, j ‘ . , too, if a day, so how the modern flapper bs : would laugh at my temerity! Nor would my father have cared, neither, y methinks, for Lord! when he caught me ft 1 at my first cigarette, he did twinklingly | q > reproach me for not having conven- . tionally asked his permission to smoke. Baird Leonard. } Discovery ADIOS have entered American | homes to stay—especially the sets THE INFLUENCE OF THE LOUD-SPRAKER ON THE AMERICAN HOM not bought on the installment plan. | comicbooks.c¢om