Life, 1887-09-01 · page 3 of 16
Life — September 1, 1887 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of "Virgo: The Summer Girl" This August page from *Life* magazine uses the zodiac sign Virgo as a framework for satirizing summer social conditions. The circular vignettes show figures labeled with phrases like "Empress of American Fashion" and "Destiny of Herself"—likely mocking pretentious summer society types and their self-importance. The accompanying text references contemporary issues: hydrophobia and cholera as fashionable complaints, political tensions (possibly between the U.S. and Canada regarding "Admiral Luce and Secretary Whitney"), and a "young Napoleon of Finance" who faced financial ruin (possibly referencing Jay Gould). The reclining "summer girl" at bottom represents the leisured ideal being satirized. Overall, *Life* mocks both social pretension and real economic/political anxieties of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
AUGUST. anes HE statistics of the month show that hydro- phobia, cholera morbus and sun-stroke are ‘on the wane as fashionable maladies, but the summer girl has broken out with increased viru- lence. ; * * . HE political atmosphere has varied according tolocality, ‘The presidential mercury reached fever-heat in the neighborhood of John Sherman, J but in Mr. Blaine’s vicinity it has been slightly cool. , . * . a H “THE relations between the United States and H 4 Canada continued to be more or less strain- ed, especially while Admiral Luce and Secretary f Whitney remained on different sides of ‘the border. . . ANOTHER young Napoleon of Finance has met his Waterloo, and the most depressing humidity continues to obtain in the immediate comicbooks.com