Life, 1887-08-04 · page 7 of 14
Life — August 4, 1887 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Drama at Campobello" This cartoon depicts a domestic dispute at Campobello (likely a vacation resort). The caption shows a wife questioning why her husband is suddenly cold toward her, and he responds that he's cutting her out because he married her for money—implying she's failed to deliver financial support. The satire appears to target wealthy or upper-class marriages based on mercenary motives rather than genuine affection. The husband's admission that "he didn't succeed" suggests his fortune-hunting strategy backfired, making him resentful toward his wife. Below is "Bar Harbor Notes," a gossipy social column discussing the wealthy summer community at Bar Harbor, Maine—another exclusive vacation destination. The column's tone reflects turn-of-the-century satirical commentary on the leisure class and their social dramas.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
DRAMA AT CAMPOBELLO. She: HERE COMES MASHER; WHY IS HE SO COOL TO You Now? He; BECAUSE HE TRIED TO CUT ME OUT WITH THE GIRL I'VE SINCE MARRIED. She: BUT WHY ARE YOU SO SAVAGE WITH HIM? He: BECAUSE HE DIDN'T SUCCEED, BAR HARBOR NOTES. JuLy oth. ND how delightful it is to get here after being par-boiled for a month in Newport fogs and millionaires! To be sure the weather is quite warm, but there are a lot of Boston people here and their native frigidness makes everything delightfully cool and comfortable, and at the same time demonstrates the fact that in the Divine economy there is no waste and that even a Bostonian has its uses. We came up in the train with Smith and his family; they have been spending the winter at Nice, and in three months the poor things have completely forgotten their native tongue, and so the air was thick with New Jersey French; and says Madame to her white- capped maid: “ss ker voo savvy lay beeyea, Marie?” and Marie looks puzzled and answers ‘* Phwat?" Strange to say, there are few people here as yet—in fact there seems to be absolutely nobody in this hotel save a strong-lunged baby to whom I will give the credit of being able to fill the entire house as thoroughly as a Salvation Army could. Confound the brat! he seems to take such an unseemly interest in my goings and comings, and waves his entire body and squawks to such an extent whenever he sees me that the nurse has to quiet him by saying, ‘That's not grandpa! That's not grandpa!” Now isn't this too bad! just as I am feeling so uncommonly youthful, and the joint of my cork-leg is working so smoothly, and I haven't had a touch of gout for a month? Too bad! | say; too bad! And how it shows the degener- acy of the times, too; why, if I had said such a thing to a gentleman when I was a kid, I shouldn't have been able to ride horseback for a week, perhaps longer! But, as I was saying, there are very few people here as yet, and it is certainly a fact that each season here begins a week or two later, and at this rate we shall, in a few years, be Christmasing here, and Ihave an idea that—even if the Bostonians keep away—it will be pretty chilly business hanging up our dear little Balbriggans on imaginary chimney-pieces. But, deary me! Iam forgetting to tell the good news—the dear girls are all here ; every single solitary one of them ! and how unutter- ably dreary the rest of the world must seem without them, and how I wish I had come up here earlier! And how lovely the dear creatures look! Brunettes, and bays, and sorrels, and chestnuts (nothing intentional here), and strawberry blondes and every kind and shade imaginable and each one more lovely than the last, and—oh, deary me! of a verity, there is no fool like an old fool! Ah, but there are the guns of the Eastern Yacht Club! They are anchoring in the harbor, and to-morrow there will not be a sober man in the whole place. Horay! we must hurry down to the shore! And so, as our friends the Smiths would say, tu revoir till we see each other again! RK. comicbooks.com