Life — April 22, 1886 — page 1: what you’re looking at

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# "A Horror of Waste" - Life Magazine, April 22, 1886 This cartoon by Albert Sterner satirizes wealthy women's wasteful spending habits. The scene depicts fashionable ladies (identifiable by their elaborate hats and coats) discussing lunch expenses. One woman complains that her lunch alone cost twenty-five cents—presented as an absurd extravagance. The satire targets the contradiction between upper-class women's casual spending and the economic reality of working-class laborers, for whom twenty-five cents represented significant earnings. The cartoon mocks both the women's obliviousness to money's value and the broader "waste" of resources among the wealthy during an era of significant economic inequality. The elaborate decorative border and masthead are typical of *Life* magazine's design from this period.