Life, 1886-09-30 · page 3 of 16
Life — September 30, 1886 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "A Stock Exchange" - Life Magazine Satire This cartoon satirizes marriage as a commercial transaction, specifically comparing a wedding to stock market speculation. The central female figure represents a bride being auctioned off to the highest bidder, depicted alongside symbols of wealth (money bags, financial instruments). The poem's language equates the bride to a commodity—"a twenty-dollar piece"—while the winning bidder appears as a grotesque caricatured figure, suggesting the ugliness of mercenary marriage. The satirical point: wealthy but undesirable men could "purchase" beautiful wives through financial superiority, reducing matrimony to a financial exchange rather than romantic partnership. This reflects Gilded Age anxieties about marriages motivated by money rather than genuine affection—a common theme in turn-of-the-century American satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE A STOCK EXCHANGE. ING out your maddest, merriest peals, Oh, silver chimes of Grace! For through your aisles will shine to-day The glory of her face ; And send forth from the organ loft A pean blithe and gay, For she, the belle of all the year, Will wedded be to-day. And you, who failed to gain the prize ‘That he has won to-day, Rail not at fate, and talk of death In this romantic way. If you had made the highest bid *T would be your wedding dawn, But now the auctioneer is through, “She's going, going, gone!” Ernest De Lancy Pierson. A FEW THINGS TO BE OBSERVED IN PLAYING | THE GAME OF WHIST. ALWAYS look solemn. | + II. Allow no conversation within five hundred feet | of the game. III. If playing at a club, hotel parlor or any public place, | show clearly by your manner that you expect the other occu- | pants of the room to withdraw. IV. Judge others by their knowledge of the game, as no other pastime requires so much memory, such close attention to established rules, so little originality and absolute silence as whist. ~ V. Never forgive a partner's error. | VI. Do not allow the fact that the solemnity of your | appearance is out of all proportion to any amount of Ring loud !_ That clear metallic sound Is music in her ear, "Tis like the jingling of the gold That shall be hers this year ! z And yellow sun, shine bright to-day Above yon gray cloud crest, Look like a twenty-dollar piece If you would please her best. intelligence that can possibly be brought upon the game to * | deter you from playing in the presence of others. VII. Never forget that many of the greatest men in history were good enough in their own way, but knew nothing of , | whist, otherwise you may fail to realize the importance of your own accomplishments. VIII. If, during the game, a child should drop anything, or ; Taise its voice, it is best to shoot before the offense can be « repeated. IX. Should any ignorant person fail to realize the almost abnormal combination of talents required to play even an | ordinary game of whist, teach him the game at once. X. Always bear in mind that it is a “ scientific” game, and far ahead of both chess and poker, which are merely games of chance. * This may be hard work, but it will be a good mental exercise. comicbooks.com