Life — April 26, 1883 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Our Anglomaniac" No. V This satirical comic depicts English fox hunting culture, specifically mocking American enthusiasm for British aristocratic pastimes. The left panel shows a hunter in formal riding attire pursuing foxes through countryside. The right panel reveals the punchline: the same figure now rides among a gathering of English hunters and spectators. The caption reads: "Why does he risk his life chasing an anise seed bag over five-barred fences? Because they ride after a fox in England over low hedges." The satire criticizes wealthy Americans who adopt British upper-class customs—fox hunting, formal dress, country-estate lifestyle—as status symbols. The "anise seed bag" detail mocks the artificiality: the hunters chase a scent, not an actual fox, yet maintain the dangerous pretense of authentic aristocratic tradition. It's one installment ridiculing American "Anglomaniacs" who blindly ape English mannerisms.