Life, 1885-01-15 · page 1 of 16
Life — January 15, 1885 — page 1: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Blood Will Tell" — Life Magazine, January 15, 1885 This satirical cartoon mocks the pretensions of American social climbers. Miss Albion (representing Britain) claims her "great grandfathers were brothers"—attempting to establish aristocratic kinship with an American family to elevate her social standing. The joke's punchline: Mr. V. Doodle investigated the family genealogy and discovered the alleged distinguished ancestors were merely "green grocers"—humble vegetable merchants, not nobility. The satire targets both the snobbish American desire to claim British aristocratic connections and the false genealogical claims such social-climbing visitors would make. "Blood will tell" (you cannot hide one's true origins) becomes ironic: the family's actual humble merchant background is exposed despite their pretensions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
" yYOLUME V. NEW YORK, JANUARY 15, 1885. NUMBER 107. Entered at New York Post Office as Second-Class Mail Matter. Grenant 83 8 sSAATOHELL® Nie BLOOD WILL TELL. Miss Albion, (on a visit here): SO OUR GREAT GRANDFATHERS WERE BROTHERS? INDEED, I DID NOT THINK YOU HAD SUCH THINGS OVER HERE AS GREAT GRAND- FATHERS. Mr. ¥. Doodle: WELL, YOU SEE, I WAS SO ANXIOUS TO CLAIM RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU, THAT I LOOKED THE OLD GENTLEMEN UP. Miss A.:_| AND WHAT DID YOU FIND? Mr. Y. D.: 1 FOUND THEY WERE GREEN GROCERS. comicbooks.com