Life, 1884-06-05 · page 10 of 16
Life — June 5, 1884 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Political Satire from Life Magazine The main cartoon sketches the Natural Bridge, labeled as drawn by Hon. James G. Blaine during a recent visit. This appears to be satirizing Blaine, a prominent Republican politician, though the specific reference is unclear without dating context. The page contains political mockery through punning "Paragraphs à la Mode": banking jokes about missing cash, references to corruption (capital crime = "defalcation"), and jibes at financial scandals like the Erie Railroad and Penn Bank suspensions—reflecting late-19th-century financial instability and fraud. The satire targets Wall Street comfort ("the other fellow's losses"), church hypocrisy (a bank president trusting a non-church-member teller), and contemporary figures like President Moore of West Side Bank. The "Ode to Spring" parodies romantic poetry while mocking inflation (lamb at fifty cents/pound). Overall, the page satirizes financial corruption, political figures, and social pretension typical of Gilded Age *Life* magazine content.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ie i SKETCH OF THE NATURAL BRIDGE, MADE BY THE HON, JAS, G. BLAINE DURING HIS RECENT VISIT. YY Th ODE_TO SPRING. HOU art to me so dear. (I think this line is Poe's, But never mind, it goes.) Thou art to me so dear! (So is thy lamb At fi:ty cents a pound.) Thou art so sweetly green, (I likewise am— I bought a summer ram For vernal mutton and forthwith found The truth of goody Whittier’s “ Might have been.”) “ae TarirF Bill—Bill Morrison. Navat Bill—Bill Chandler. Tue “drop” of oil is not calcu- lated to smooth the troubled waters Of finance. CorNETTI HoRNBLOWER— No, a trombone player cannot be called professor. He is only a tutor. A ROULETTE WORKS BOTH WAYS. - “I HAVE noticed these peculiar hieroglyphics,” said a lecturer on the Shopira manuscripts, “as far as I have read, and even on the middle column—* “Red and even, on the middle column?” shouted a suddenly awak- ened member of his audience, “Then pay me eight chips !” PARAGRAPHS A LA MODE. BANKING synonym—No cashier—no cash here. Capira crime—Defalcation. Lup.Low Street—No ; he is not a Ward in Chan- cery. A topic of passing interest—Erie second consoli- dated. ‘Tue Penn Bank has suspended again. His nibbs the President is worse. Mr. E. C. Burt, the eminent shoemaker, is dead. He could not re-soul himself. A PROMINENT member of the Erie Railroad Investi- gating Committee, which decided to withhold the July dividend, rejoices in the name of R. Suydam Grant. Many prefer to say D—n Ward. Watt STREET comfort—The other fellow’s losses. CrusHED strawberry and elephant’s ear must give way as popular colors. Cheap cab ochre is now on the ascendent. PresIDENT Moors, of the West Side Bank, gets off this unconscious sarcasm, in speaking of the defaulting teller, Hinckley ; “‘ He had our entire confidence. He was not a church member, so far as I know.” “ THERE, Spriggins,” said Mrs. S. to the light of her life, “ read that !” pointing to the following paragraph in the Tribune : “4 crematory will undoubtedly be built very shortly within a few miles of Philadelphia. There is a new | organization for the purpose, which includes a number of prominent citizens, and there will be a regular stock company.’ “T£ some of you magnets would start one of them things right here, we’d get more milk and less water !” comicbooks.com