Life, 1886-06-10 · page 11 of 18
Life — June 10, 1886 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Realization" - Life Magazine Satire This page satirizes the absurd luxury amenities being added to steamships. The elaborate illustration depicts an impractical wooden driveway installed around the deck of the "City of Rome" steamer, complete with an imitation hedge to simulate a country drive. The satire works on multiple levels: the text mockingly describes increasingly ridiculous uses—"fox hunts," toboggan slides in winter, ambulances for seasickness, even horse cars for "long steamers." It ridicules the wealthy passengers' obsession with recreating land-based leisure activities at sea, suggesting their dissatisfaction with simple ocean travel. The accompanying vignettes ("A Smart Boy," "A Flank Movement") are unrelated humor pieces common to Life's format. The satire ultimately mocks Gilded Age excess and the notion that steamer travel requires elaborate artifice to entertain privileged passengers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
333 _ THE REALIZATION, ‘Thanks to the inventive genius of the cabin boy on the “City of Rome,” all passengers by that steamer can this summer have ‘‘ tools,” canters and ‘brushes ” to their hearts’ content, ‘An adjustable sectional plank driveway has been built; and, during fair weather, this wooden road will be placed in position. It will extend around the deck of the steamer; and as she is 545 feet in length, one'can readily see that the passengers will have at their disposal a circular road of no mean length. To make the illusion perfect, an imitation hedge will follow the outside circle of the road, thereby concealing the iron bulwarks of the ship, and giving the effect of a diversified country. Our artist has represented the driveway on a fair summer afternoon, and we ask any man whose name and address are in the city directory if the passengers do not appear far happier than if simply confined to a wooden chair and a summer novel. IN CASE OF ACCIDENTS. An ambulance can rush down this road en route to the stern for a sudden case of sea sickness, and a policeman can be on the spot to prevent all fast driving between the cook's galley and the mizzen marlin spike. Fox hunts will also be in order, and in winter the road can be converted into a toboggan slide. FUTURE. RESULTS. We trust in time all the long steamers of the Atlantic will favor passengers with similar roads ; and, if the boats continue to increase in length, a line of horse cars would counteract distances. THE DOLPHIN DRAG. Gee following page.) Our artist has also represented the new dolphin drag, which will be a fitting accompaniment to the driveway. When the steamer’s shaft is broken, and the vessel is lying idle, the passengers can leave her and take mid-ocean drives to prominent points in the vicinity, returning in time for the twilight mess. Or, when on the homeward voyage, the steamer is passing the Long Island beaches, those travelers who own villas along shore can leave the ship and leisurely drive home, thus avoiding arriving at dirty Gotham, and at the same time saving duty at the Custom House, and from nineteen cents to two dollars and ahalf L. I. R. R, fare. Wallace Peck. : 4 3 * i = ry z = a i 2 yt ean” rn phy A SMART BOY. ALOONIST (to his little boy who has been left in charge for a few minutes) : Vell, Heinrich, haf you sold noddings vile I was out ? Little Boy: Ya, fadder, I sold dot old slate for fifty cents. Der shentlemans said ve could buy a new von for ten cents. Dot vas a grett bargain, fadder. MOTTO FOR PERSONS WHO PRESERVE FRUIT—" They can, who think they can.” A FLANK MOVEMENT—Pa with a strap. comicbooks.com