Life, 1929-03-29 · page 14 of 36
Life — March 29, 1929 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains **Mrs. Peps Diary** — a satirical column about upper-class social life. The three cartoons illustrate entries from March 5-6. The top cartoon shows a traffic accident ("Pedestrian—Good night!"), satirizing dangerous automobile culture. The middle cartoon depicts fashionable women at an Easter parade, mocking extravagant millinery and women's fashion obsession. The caption notes a woman displaying an elaborate bonnet. The bottom cartoon shows "The fireman who inherited a million"—a working-class figure suddenly wealthy, suggesting satire about social mobility and how newfound riches change behavior. The diary text itself critiques political disappointments (women's suffrage/voting rights failure), consumer culture, and domestic frustrations with husbands and servants—typical satirical targets of 1920s-era Life magazine's commentary on American society.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A member of the Follies decides to shaw the doenue what areal Easter bonnet can be, The fireman who inherited a million. Marcu 5—The wind howl. ing so prodigiously that I might have thought my- Leonard self on Cape Cod instead of in the sand, pine and Bible belts, so lay late, pondering many things, in especial that if news. paper reporters asked me what mos impressed me in the South, I should respond “Muddy automobiles” with. out any hesitation soever. Thinking, too, of President Coolidge, and how he is now in Northampton, a town where I do always love to be and whither I am going at my earliest con- venience for that I do know no love- lier place in the Spring. Then, in- spired by radio memories of yesterday, musing on politics in general, and the failure of the Woman's Party to do the great deeds it promised if granted the franchise, for Lord! not only do our scandalous divorce laws remain in statu quo, but no duress has yet been brought upon the manufacturers of fitted bags to turn out a proper one, those having any bottles at all having them too large or too small or too many, and the cream and powder re- ceptacles are such in name only, not to mention the frequent necessity of choosing between a button-hook and a nail file in purchasing a traveling equipment. A great batch of mail by the post, for I do so enjoy receiving communications when away from home that I did order everything to be forwarded, even to the circulars of publishers, fishmongers and rug clean- ers. Up and did on my new beige woolen, which must. straightway be lined with chiffon against its irritatioa of my skin, and out to sit in the sun. Marcu 6—A brief stretch of Cluny being torn loose from the edge of my breakfast. napkin, I did mend it straightway with my embroidery thread which was at hand, feeling as smug as a Girl Scout over her daily deed of kindness. My husband, poor wretch, strutting before me in his brave new buff waistcoat, which he did persist in wearing to the drag, even though I told him he looked like a bookmaker. In bed all day, having caught my first cold of the season in a climate supposedly salubrious for such a malady, but did secretly enjoy having Dr. Wilds to see me, even though he did not sce fit to alarm (Continued on Page 26) comicbooks.com