Life, 1890-10-23 · page 12 of 16
Life — October 23, 1890 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Page Analysis This page contains three separate comic vignettes satirizing social pretension and etiquette: **"They Do Not Speak As They Pass By"** mocks shallow gossip culture—a "mutual friend" spreads a catty remark from Dr. Witherington about Mrs. Vanveneer's vanity, causing a rift between acquaintances who now ignore each other. **"An Excusable Mistake"** depicts a man slapping a stranger on the back, mistaking him for a friend in similar clothes. The humor lies in the awkward explanation that they both attended the same poker party. **Main Editorial:** Life attacks its rival publication, the *Illustrated American*, which has foolishly championed **Ward McAllister**—a famous Gilded Age society figure and etiquette authority—over **Chauncey Depew** (a politician and speaker). Life's lengthy rebuttal argues that while McAllister may excel at social performance, he cannot rival genuine historical figures like George Washington. The satire mocks McAllister as a mere "professional snob" whose fame, though dazzling, represents shallow society obsession rather than true greatness.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THEY BO NOT SPEAK AS THEY PASS BY. T was a“ mutual friend who caused the unpleas- antness between Dr. Witherington and Mrs. Vanveneer. The “friend” was expressing her sur- prise that Mrs. V. did not catch cold from her half- mast corsages, and reported the doctor's reply to her bosom friend, It was to the effect that Mrs. Van- veneer was so wrapped up in her own conceit that she could not catch cold under any circums was all. ances. That BANOS AN EXCUSABLE MISTAKE. Mr. Whitehead (who has just slapped stranger on the back): ON, I BEG Yo" PAWDON, SAI; THOUGHT IT WAS MY FRIES" SMITHERS. YO" HAN ON DE KERRY SAME CLO'S HE GEN'R'LY WARS. Stranger: Ves, PAWTY I DID LAST ERENING, To HIS ROOM. SMITHERS ATTINDED DE SAME POKAH HE AM AT PRESENT CONFINED Leader of Gang: Dis MORNIN’ WHEN I DIDN'T HAVE NO SHOW WiD YER, YER WUZ A GOIN’ TO KICK DER STUFFIN’ OUT O° ME, SO YOU SAID. Now, wny pon'r cHeR po tf, UR handsome but mistaken contemporary, the /dlustrated American, has the effrontery to differ with Lire on a very important question. This contemporary goes so far as to Say: We will prove that Depew is unworthy to hand cotillon favors to McAl- lister; that Nature has lavished her marvelous treasures upon McAllister and withheld them fron D:pew. We will submit evidence that, while Depew can eat and talk, McAllister can eat, write and dance. That Mr. McAllister can eat and dance, we are not prepared to disprove, but while admitting his position as the foremost author of his time we feel constrained to remark that there are men still living who are his mental superiors. Not in individual qualities, perhaps, but in that heroic unity of character and quadrilateral equipoise* without which no man is truly great. He is a better dancer than Herbert Spencer, and perhaps a bet- ter eater than Alfred Tennyson, but he can never supplant George Washington in the hearts of the American people. To be sure he has attained, as a professional snob, a dazzling eninence which is the envy of foreign potentates, but although his present glory may dim all previous records, he will never be ac- cepted by future generations as one of the grand figures of his- tory. There may be injustice in this, but we go so far as to assert that the professional snob, although exciting greater enthusiasm in the hearts of the people, deserves a lower pedestal than the scholar or the patriot. * See Dictionary. comicbooks.com