Life, 1884-05-15 · page 10 of 16
Life — May 15, 1884 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Satire of British Prejudice Against Americans The main article "American Men and Women" is a scathing satire of exaggerated British stereotypes about Americans. Presented as an extract from a fictional "London Royal Journal," it ridicules unfounded claims: that American women lose their front teeth at 18, drink constantly, gamble obsessively, smoke cigarettes, and are uneducated and abused by husbands. It mocks specific accusations—that clergymen run distilleries and gambling operations in church basements, that wealthy families hire proxies to occupy their church pews, and that women attend cockfights and public executions. The accompanying cartoon (top) satirizes forced social invitations: a woman extracts a reluctant man's promise to attend her party "with a corkscrew" (forcibly), and he quips he hopes to enjoy it "as much as you do other things you extract with a corkscrew"—implying excessive drinking. Life magazine uses absurdist exaggeration to expose British prejudice and hypocrisy toward American society.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘LIFE: rE AS THOUGH I HAD EXTRACTED THE INVITATION TO CALL WITH A CORKSCREW, She: WELL, 1 HOPE YOU WILL ENJOY IT AS MUCH AS YOU DO OTHER THINGS YOU EXTRACT WITH A CORKSCREW, A CHEST-PROTECTOR—Lock and key. DOROTHEA., T was all long, long ago, For our heads are white as snow ; And her children ! how they grow ! Ah! I wonder do they know? It all seems so sad and queer— Ah! a blot made by a tear! And the story’s told, I fear ; So good-bye to—Dorothea ? R.K. AMERICAN MEN AND WOMEN. Extract from the London Royal Yournal, May 2d, 1884. is not generally known in England that almost all American ladies become entirely bi .. at an early age, and also lose their upper front teeth at the age of 18, but these are well-attested facts, and are the results of the peculiarly unhealthy climate and the wide-spread practice of opium-eating, and in many tobacco-chewing. ‘The ladies openly frequent bar-rooms, such as the Hoffman House in 6th Avenue, at all hours, ‘They invariably appear dressed in ex- tremely bad taste, with ugly and plain features, a pretty American woman being indeed a rara avis, and wear large silver or gold wnargrettes attached to their belts. These are supposed, by the uninitiated, to contain smelling-salts, but in reality are filled with liquor, gen- erally rye or Bourbon whiskey. Every fashionable woman carries a pack of cards, gambling for high stakes being all the rage. The clergymen are par- ticularly addicted to this vice. I know of one who lost, in one night, at poker, $50,000, his entire yearly salary. Most of the American clergy are hard drinkers, many of them own and run race-horses, and are pro- prietors of distilleries, concert-halls'and dime-museums. I have heard of gambling-hells being located in the basements of fashionable churches, and of the same being managed by the church trustees, with the full knowledge of the police. During nearly three weeks which I spent in America I repeatedly saw dice thrown for choice of seats in church, even during services, and the bottle passed from hand to hand in the choir. A peculiar custom obtains there which is met with no- where else in the civilized world. Although the wealthy class are pew-owners and pay the ministers immense salaries, they rarely enter a church, but fill their pews with persons who are hired for the purpose ; worshipping by proxy, as it were. st The houses of the rich have regular bar-rooms, with bar-tenders, and whiskey is drunk at every meal, es- pecially at breakfast, with mince-pie. Babies are frequently weaned upon applejack, which is made in immense quantities at Hoboken, the capital of New Jersey. Cocking-mains form a regular feature of the “after- noon teas,” so called, at which ladies congregate to imbibe mixed liquors and smoke cigarettes, while in the country towns the “sewing circle,” ostensibly a religious order, is but the pretext for the most de- praved orgies, and furnishes a fitting illustration of the depth to which the people have sunk. The women have but little education, few being able to read or write ; are completely under the domi- nation of their husbands and appear broken in spirit and weak in mind, wife-beating being in high life a frequent occurrence. The New York ladies have extremely large feet, are greatly troubled with corns, and walk with a very ungraceful carriage. They are very fond of prize fights which are of daily occurrence and to which they throng in great numbers. They also attend all the public hangings and whippings in Union Square. Their boasted liberty has degenerated from the noble ideal of their English forefathers into vulgar license, the young girls wandering about at night unattended, sometimes in male costume, to the concert halls and dives on the Battery, and the young men indulging in wildest excesses—smashing lamps, robbing hen-roosts and clothes-lines in mere malicious mischief, and knocking down and clubbing inoffensive policemen into a senseless condition, even fracturing their skulls in some cases. The press of the country is debased, mercenary, and weak—especially the comic papers which are but pitiful imitations of Punch, which, by the way, has an immense circulation in America, and is the source of all their humor. Hon. D. Lusuincton Copper, M. P. comicbooks.com