Life, 1885-12-03 · page 5 of 16
Life — December 3, 1885 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 313 **"Ancestral" Cartoon:** The left panel shows an elegantly dressed couple conversing, while the right panel depicts a circus or street performance with a showman and children. The caption has Count Dollicetti claiming musical family ancestry, referencing organ matinee performances in New York twenty years prior—suggesting his "noble" background is actually from lowbrow popular entertainment. **"Sic Itur Ad Astor" Article:** This defends William Waldorf Astor's novel against criticism. The piece argues his work deserves protection from "cheap millionaires" and cheap labor competition. It addresses disputes over the Borgia family's historical reputation and references controversies involving figures like Lord Bacon and Roswell P. Flower—though specific context remains unclear.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ANCESTRAL, Count Dollcenti: Ow, YES, MRS. DOUBLEDOLLAR, I THINK I MAY SAY I COME OF A MUSICAL FAMILY, MY FATHER USED TO GIVE ORGAN MATINEES IN NEW YORK TWENTY YEARS AGO. INDIAN SUMMER. QUATRAIN. OW is the waning twilight of the year; O’er drowsy fields in sombre russet drest The golden-rod is blazing like a torch That lights the weary summer to her rest. E.G. S. SIC ITUR AD ASTOR.* (* Free rendering : This is how we go for Mr. Astor.) AN nothing be done to protect poor and industrious literary persons from the competition of cheap million- aire labor? Mr. William Waldorf Astor has written a ro- mance. It has been produced under conditions that no ordinary novel-writer can hope to rival. Mr. Astor wrote it in his triple capacity as Mr. Astor, as American Minister to Rome, and as a student of Italian history. It undertakes to set the well-known Borgia family in a just light before the American people. Mr. Astor has been at special pains to get exclusive information about the Borgias, and is deter- mined that justice shall be done them, if there is any to be had for love or money. To rehabilitate the reputation of the Borgias is a very large contract, but it is so much the fashion to reverse history that perhaps the undertaking is not too great for Mr. Astor's ability. We have been lately taught that Joan of Arc lived to die of old age, that Henry VIII. was henpecked, that Bloody Mary was a sentimental invalid, that Pocahontas did not marry John Smith, and that G, W. did not know a hatchet from a crowbar. If Mr. Astor says the Borgias were jobbers of gum and not of cold poison, we do not propose to contradict him. His Italian friends had a fair trial, and, if we remember rightly, were hanged in due form. It is im- possible that any benefit can arise, at this late day, from quarreling over the evidence. The Walkup trial is fresher and quite as interesting. It is our duty, however, to protest against the appearance of this new laborer in the field of letters. If his novel was bad, it would take care of itself without need of disparage- ment, but that is said not to be the case. Lord Bacon said it was enough for a beautiful woman to be beautiful. Surely it ought to suffice for Mr. Astor to be Mr. Astor. Does he want the real earth, and an imaginary one besides? Where is Mr. Roswell P. Flower, and what has he got in press ?