Life, 1890-02-06 · page 5 of 18
Life — February 6, 1890 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 75 This page contains three satirical sketches critiquing early 20th-century attitudes toward work, religion, and culture. **"Business Principles"** mocks a preacher and working man debating whether laborers deserve payment in the afterlife, satirizing religious hypocrisy about earthly compensation. **"A Lesson in Morals"** depicts a "Trustee of the Metropolitan Museum" confronting a laboring man visiting on Sunday, insisting he shouldn't see art on the Sabbath. The satire attacks upper-class gatekeeping—denying working people access to cultural institutions while claiming moral authority. The trustee's hypocrisy is the joke: he polices the poor man's behavior while profiting from the museum himself. **"Pictorial Shakespeare"** and the rain scene appear lighter in tone, likely offering humorous visual commentary on contemporary life. The page targets class privilege and religious sanctimoniousness.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. She: HE 18 A BRILLIANT PREACHER, BUT RATHER TOO WORLDLY, I THINK. THE MAN WHO WORKS FOR THE LORD EXPECTS TO GET PAID AS WELL AS THE REST OF YoU. He: Yi COLLECT IT, AND HE DOESN'T WAIT TILL HE GETS TO THE NEXT WORLD TO HER, A LESSON IN MORALS. TRUSTEE OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM: you doing here upon the Sabbath? LABORING MAN: I would like to see the interior of the museum. TRUSTEE (with much severity): What! Upon the Sabbath? Come some week day, blasphemous wretch! LABORING MAN: But I am hard at work other days to support my family, and unless I see it Sundays I shall never see it at all. TRUSTEE: Then never see it at all. Better stay away than jeopardize your soul. LABORING MAN (surprised): Jeopardize my soul! Why, I had heard What are PICTORIAL SHAKESPEARE. “AY, THERE'S THE RUBI" these museums had an elevating influence. TRUSTEE: Yes, but not on Sundays. LABORING MAN: That's very curious! Why do you think so? TRUSTEE: Because it is wicked. LanoriNG MAN: Wicked! I can’t be- lieve it. CHORUS OF ABOUT FIFTY MILLION AMERICANS: Nor we, either. TRUSTEE: What, defiance? Away, im- pious brutes! Away, blasphemers! (He retires to his own house, which ts filled with beautiful works of art, and there tries to realize the enormity of thetr sin.) The Maiden: CLAUDE, DEAR, HOLD TH’ UMBER- ELLY MORE OVER ME OR ELSE TH’ PEOPLE'LL THINK WE'RE MARRIED, comicbooks.com