Life, 1883-08-09 · page 11 of 16
Life — August 9, 1883 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Society Man" - Life Magazine Satire This two-part page satirizes the American upper-class social climber circa early 1900s. **The Main Cartoon** (left) mocks the "society man"—a wealthy-*appearing* gentleman who actually possesses only $1.67 in actual capital. His real "wealth" is social connections he exploits through quotation-marked "knowing" of rich people. The joke: he dresses fashionably by befriending wealthy men like Mr. Smith and Mr. Robinson, then ordering suits alongside them so tailors assume he can pay. The tailor recoupes losses by overcharging subsequent customers. The man's marital prospects are equally parasitic: he'll marry a wealthy girl (humorously described as one "who drives the English pug") and contribute nothing but buying dog meat—she'll support *him*. **The Sermon Recipes** (right) parody popular preachers of the era (Collier and Philippe Brooks appear to be references), reducing their sermons to absurd recipes mixing platitudes, sentiment, and denominational politics into easily digestible packages for audiences. Together, the page critiques both social pretense and superficial morality in Gilded Age America.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-LIFE- 69 POPULAR SCIENCE CATECHISM. Lesson X.—The Society Man. HAT ts this? A Society Man, dear. He seems to be very wealthy. Oh yes! he seems so. But is he not wealthy? No, dear; he has only $1.67. My! has he no capital? Certainly. What is it? The people he “ knows.” Ts that capital available? Yes. For what? For the purpose of “know- ing" other people. Why do you put those Sunny jiggermarigs before and after the word “ know?" ‘To signify its peculiar use. Why “ peculiar?” Because this society man “ knows" people in a way which is “ peculiar.” How? Ask them. Lf this society man has no capital but $1.67 and the people he “knows,” how can he afford to dress so well? Ask his tailor. My ! doesn't the poor tatlor get his pay? Oh, yes! How? Why he charges his next customer $90 for a $45 suit. Gracious! but how did the society man manage to get the suit? By “knowing” Mr. Smith and Mr. Robinson. Who are they? Men who pay the tailor. Well? Well, last time Mr. Smith and Mr. Robinson ordered a suit, he accompanied them and ordered his. And the poor tatlor thought he was an intimate friend of Mr. Smith and Mr. Robinson? Exactly. 4 / But has the society man no occupation? es. What? Trying to marry. Whom? The young girl who drives the English pug. But if he marries the young girl who drives the English pug, how will he support her? He will not support her. Then how will they get along? She will support him. Oh! then he will marry a girl with money? Every time. But will he contribute nothing towards the expenses of thefamily? Oh, yes. What? He will buy meat for the pug. Well! this life of swindling and expectancy ts a rath singular life for a gentleman to lead? No gentleman leads it. But are not all gentlemen members of society? Yes. Then they are society men? Yes, but But what? All society men are not gentlemen, darling, RECIPES FOR POPULAR SERMONS. lL Optimism A LA COLLIER. TARE a number of sunny smiles, carefully retain- ing the teeth. Wash them in living water; this should then be drained into a Yorkshire cullender and poured over them at frequent intervals. Salt well with personal allusions of as intimate a character as possi- ble. Dip them into a well beaten mixture of your wife and children. Fry in bubbling good humor deep enough to float them. They should be of a beautiful tose color in thirty-five minutes. Take them up and dry them in one or two pictorial stories from the Old Testament. Garnish with a few witticisms and one broad joke, and serve with familiar injunctions to the choir or to any notables present in audience, in a separate dish. II. OrTHODOXY A LA PHILIPPE BROOX, Take one carefully selected idea. Season with lib- eral thought and a few sprays of fresh feelings. Put the whole into a Unitarian Pudding bag, and sew it up carefully with the threads of the Athanasian Creed. Then immerse the bag in the boiling water of a min- ority report offered at the Episcopal Conference. On removing the bag be careful to catch the drippings in an Episcopal artifice used for this purpose, which may be served at Vespers in the afternoon. Then take the rapidly cooked mass from the bag, sprinkle with the spatterings of an overflowing heart, and serve with lady-fingers. Cericus, 2 comicbooks.com