Life, 1927-12-22 · page 14 of 36
Life — December 22, 1927 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main illustration titled "The Gay Nineties" is nostalgic satire. It depicts an elegant 1890s dinner party with well-dressed guests, accompanied by text mocking that era's ignorance about nutrition. The caption explains that people then knew nothing about "calories," "proteins, solids, roughage or vitamins"—concepts that had become common knowledge by Life's publication date (unclear when, but post-1920s). The page's secondary content features a humorous stenographer's letter transcribing her boss's dictation, with romantic banter and workplace flirtation. It satirizes both office dynamics and the stenographer's literal, sometimes confused transcription of his words. The advertisements below target middle-class readers with business services and products.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Back in the days of “Full-Blown Womanhood,” when nobody knew a calory from a corpuscle or cared a whoop about proteins, solids, roughage or vitamins, Christmas was a gastronomic orgy surpassing even Thanksgiving. Hired help was elbowed out of the kitchen by the women- folk of the family, and the featherweight Pastry Champion—despite vehement protests to the contrary—always insisted that her pie crust this year was not quite as flaky as it was last The New and Trusting Stenographer Literally Transcribes Her Notes Fush & Fusher, Ine., 389 Weeup Street, City. ENTLEMEN (that’s a laugh) : Your favor, if that’s what it is, of the 9th inst. (I think it was the ninth; look it up) at hand and I note (a helluva one) that request payment on your invoice. Your re- quest, it appears to the writer (and what a swell pair of blue eyes you got, Miss Brown) is a little prema- you The Gay Nineties year at Sophie's. ture (and so was my mar Miss Brown; I was only a boy at the time) in that your bill was only re- ceived two days ago and we gener- ally take at least sixty days (and a lot more of your time, Miss Brown, if we can get it) before we attempt to discount your invoices (Miss Brown, your knees make it very hard fora lad to keep his mind on Fush and Fusher’s invoices). I have turned your communication (but not you, Miss Brown—just try and have some one get you away from me) over to our auditing department (you and me both, honey) and you will probably hear from that department within a short time (thank you, Miss Brown; your lips are awfully soft, baby). Very (you said it, big girl) sin- cerely yours, Ousta Porrer Corp., Per Tom F. Barry. HE, cross-road_ marks the spot where the bodies are found. comicbooks.com