Life, 1928-07-26 · page 16 of 36
Life — July 26, 1928 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three satirical pieces about domestic life and gender roles in early 20th-century America. **"The New Woman"** cartoon and accompanying text mock a husband's frustration with his wife's growing independence. She's taking flying lessons and has mechanical interests, challenging traditional domestic expectations. The joke hinges on the husband's bewilderment at her autonomy and his mother's inability to teach her "how to cook." **"Caddie"** cartoon depicts a golf caddie commenting on a poor swing, offering working-class perspective on leisure activities. **"A Great Emptiness"** anecdote satirizes wealthy motorists' obliviousness—Little Emma crossing a desert notices nothing despite the dramatic landscape, embodying satirical commentary on the insulated, incurious nature of the wealthy. The overall theme critiques evolving gender dynamics and class blindness in American society.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Cavpie (after third miss): Well, it’s great to be out just only even swingin’ at ’em, ain't it, mister? The New Woman Groom: I thought you were going over you how to my mother’s to let her teach to cook. Brive: I went, dear, but when I got there your mother had trouble with the electric iron, and when I told her I “Oh, it’s all right—your daughter took a fancy to me in my bathing suit and I’m just keeping up the good impression.” thought it was the resistance coil that needed fixing, she asked me what the re- sistance coil was. So I took the iron apart, showed her just what it was, and fixed it. Then she said that as long as I was there I might take a look at the vacuum cleaner. There was some slight thing the matter with it... .the belt wouldn’t drive the brushes. Something was the matter with the automatic drain in the washing machine, so I took that apart and cleaned that. And you wouldn’t believe me if I told you the condition the electric refrig- erator was in. I don’t believe your mother took it apart since she bought it. Now, at home we girls used to take turns do- ing that. And, dear, remind me to go to your mother’s next Tuesday. I prom- ised I'd take her over to the airport and show her a few of the more elementary principles of aviation. She's taking a real, serious interest in it, and -inside of a month I think she'll be ready to try some solo hops. H. F. Mueller. A GREAT EMPTINESS Lirrte Emma was crossing the desert with her parents in their high-powered, well-equipped motor. She became unusu- ally silent for a while, and then surprised —_= Lire’s Camps for Needy Won’t You Give This Little Gis| a Hand? In the very heart of New York there is a garden spot—green and quiet and locked safely away from a rude world behind a high iron fence. You have to be possessed of a key to get into the garden, to walk around its paths or sit under the trees and watch the gardener busily snipping at the bushes, It is called Gramercy Park. During the unendurable heat of ks week it wasn’t what you'd call cool is Gramercy Park, but it was cooler thin most places in New York. It was, in fac, the Arctic region compared with the stifling lower East Side which clutches in its grim and ugly tenements thor sands of the ays poor, and an outlying section of which, strangely enough, lis very near this little green oasis in tk arid town, The palings of the Park fence are jus far enough apart to allow a small fae to be pushed—not through—but far enough in to afford the owner a good view of the delectable place. The other day we beheld such a face peering into the Square. Pathetically young, tragically wise, all pallor and yearning, and dumbly bewildered at a world so partisan that she, having no key, might not (Please turn to page 28) them by saying: “Mother, I never saw so} Tue Aucer: Oh, I beg your pardon—aa ! much nothing in all my life.” boring you? comicbooks.com