Life, 1928-03-22 · page 10 of 34
Life — March 22, 1928 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains several humorous pieces satirizing early 20th-century social customs and gender relations. The main cartoon by McKerney depicts two chorus girls discussing a wealthy suitor ("Harry Goldbaggs") who promised one of them $50,000—but only as a promissory note rather than cash. The joke mocks both the girls' mercenary attitudes and wealthy men's deceptive practices. The longer text piece "What to Expect If We Have Companionate Marriage" satirizes a woman named Vivian who juggles promises to marry three different men (Arthur, Ted, and Jack) at different future dates, exposing the absurdity of casual marriage commitments. Other brief comedic exchanges mock everyday situations: a dry cleaner's excuse, cigarette advertising claims, and a refrigerator salesman's awkward encounter with a former victim. The humor targets period anxieties about marriage, wealth, and changing social mores.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
First Corus Girt: Harry Goldbags gave me fifty thousand dollars to-day. Seconn Cnorus Girt: Cash or check? “Neither. It was a kind of a promissory note beginning, ‘Precious ‘ittle cutums.’” What to Expect If We Have Companionate Marriage ae VIVIAN, I just don’t know what to do. You know, I promised Arthur I'd marry him next week for three years, and now Ted says I promised him I'd marry him in two years; and if I marry Arthur for three years, how can I marry Ted in two years? Besides, I don’t think I told Ted I'd marry him in two years. I think I told him I'd marry him in four years, because I’m alm positive I told Jack I’d marry him in two years. And, Vivian, Ted's just so mad at me because I won't marry him in two years. He says he had his program all filled out for the next twenty years, and I've gone and spoiled it for him. Now the poor boy’s all in a fret because he says he doesn’t know any other girls that aren’t already signed up for two years from now; and then I asked him when he was going to marry you, Vivian, and he said in ten years; and so I thought I'd come over and ask you if you just wouldn't trade dates and marry Ted in two years instead of ten because then I could marry him after all, since I’ve got an open date ten years from now, and, Vivian, won't you please trade date because Ted's a dear, and I'd hate to miss marrying Vincent Clark Odell. On Easy Street LECTRIC REFRIGERATOR SALESMAN: I'm sorry, old chap. nes must be pretty hard for you since I knocked you out of a job. Tue Orv Iceman: Don't apolo- gize, old thing. You ought to see my royalty checks from my book of memoirs. If People Translated Other \ Languages as They Do Chinese For a Lace Fan CELEBRATED philosopher Of the first century before Christ Once wisely said: “All Gaul Is divided into three Parts.” Humming Birds’ Wings e Germans have a legend h can be stated In several ways. Perhaps the simplest is this: “It is forbidden to pick flowers In the Kénigs-Platz Gardens,” To Be Written on Ivory Gargon, When I get back to the good old States I am going to make a bee line For the nearest cafeteria, And order Ham and eggs, lotus buds, And a good thick sirloin steak. NR. Next Shop RS. SNOB: I've brought in my ermine coat to be cleaned. I Troturut Crean I'm sorry, madam, but you'll have to take that to a hare dresser. m: WHEN better cigarettes are fo made, they will still be “or tal dinary” in rival advertisements. sh pink-tipped like o we. “Were you embarrassed when you cauftt on fire in that night club?” “Oh, no, they soon put me out.” comicbooks.com