Life, 1926-07-15 · page 13 of 37
Life — July 15, 1926 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Illustration (Top):** "The Gay Nineties" depicts a woman riding a bicycle in a long skirt, captioned that during the bicycle era, "a really nice girl in the nonetoosafe nineties didn't have to walk home." This nostalgically references the 1890s when bicycles offered women newfound independence and mobility—a progressive social change of that era. **Text Sections Below:** Include humorous anecdotes about business signatures and banking practices, followed by two sections titled "Consistency" and "Simple Arithmetic"—brief satirical pieces about duplicitous businessmen and marital discord. The signatures shown appear to authenticate these satirical observations about gentlemen's inconsistency. The page exemplifies Life's early-20th-century satirical style: social commentary mixed with period nostalgia and domestic humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THERE WAS ONE ADVANTAGE IN LIV TOO-SAFE DIRECTORS’ Meeting seemed to be in progress. Seated around a gleaming ma- ny table were a dozen faultlessly domen. Keen and alert, each one bore the unmistakable marks of the successful man of affairs. “T wgxh z ermb slttenshn vthbrd tmattrf enshdrol mprtnee,” the elder- ly tleman at the head of the t was saying. “Tppcirs thtrshbn trblinthptsbrg fees fth erprshin .. .” “Fthgntlmnll — prmtmetntrrptm,” interjected a fussy-looking old party with Cappy Ricks whiskers. tdwnnitmfnish — whtestrtdtsa,” objected a calm-looking financier seated opposite. “What ails these birds?” I in- quired of my guide. “Do they think THE GAY NINETIES DURING THE BICYCLE ERA, Consistency they're a gang of Demostheneses, with their mouths full of pebbles? Or are they testing the articulate qualities of hot mush, or of a new universal language? just plain cuckoo?” “No, sir,” he responded. “Every one of these gentlemen is president of a bank. But every one of them has such an illegible signature that no one can read it. See.” He pulled a roll of bills from his pocket. The top one was a bank note. “See this Or are they . signature?” I looked at the note with interest. Tt bore the name ly A REALLY NICE GIRL IN THE NONE- NETIES DIDN'T HAVE TO WALK HOME. “That is the signature of Mr. Ezra Wheeple, the gentleman presiding. Here's another one. “This is the signature of Mr. Oliver Miller, who interrupted him. “You see, sir,” the guide explained, are all of them sticklers for consistency, and so they are just talking the way they sign their names.” D.R.S. Simple Arithmetic he Bible says to multiply. Most couples seem to divide. H * comicbooks.com