Life, 1892-02-11 · page 19 of 22
Life — February 11, 1892 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains an insurance advertisement for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, framed with two satirical cartoons. **"It Has Reached There"** (left): A fantastical Asian-inspired scene depicting a servant presenting entertainment options to a ruler, with hieroglyphic symbols. The caption suggests the insurance company's message has reached even exotic, distant lands. **"His Cross"** (right): A domestic scene showing a well-dressed father confronting his son. The dialogue reveals the son's complaint: he's been forced to work for money and support himself, disgracing the family in fashionable society. The father dismisses him as lazy. **The satire**: The juxtaposition mocks both the insurance ad's grandiose claims about its reach and the son's complaint—implying that requiring a young man to work is actually reasonable, not a disgrace. The cartoon uses the "lazy youth" trope common to Gilded Age humor, contrasting social pretension with practical necessity. The page date appears to be from 1892 based on the financial statement shown.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
hy Have You Not Made This Known to Me Before ? Is the question that many a man asks when he first learns that in he Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASS., M. V. B. EDCERLY, Pres. JOHN A. HALL, Sec. can insure his life, with the privilege of retiring, on any anniversary of his policy date, after the first, with a generous render value in cash or in paid-up insurance. ‘ Well, the Company is trying to make it known, and to publish to all, the fact that these surrender values are fixed law and stated in the policy, and furthermore guaranteed by ample assets. Lee . . -$12,239,529.16 LIABILITIES, JANUARY st, 1892..... feet ee eben eee eee esse eeee 11,236,837.26 SURPLUS (MASSACHUSETTS STAND 10 West 23d Street, corner Fifth Avenue. IT HAS REACHED THERE. We translate the hieroglyphs on the right for the benefit of our readers. HIS CROSS. instrel: MOST SUBLIME AND ILLUSTRIOUS HYSON-EYED CHIEF, WHAT SONG 1 YOUR HUMBLE SERVITOR, PUNK LIP, SING FOR YOU TO-DAY? SHALL IT drate Father: K OF PEACE OR OF YOUR ANCESTORS’ PROWESS IN WAR? (See symbols,—ED.). Son: AW—VES—IT'S WELL FOR YOU TO TALK THAT—AW—VULGAH WAY TO ME k ° SO THAT 1 MAY JUG JUG THE MELODY AND WORDS MOST PLEASANT TO —ME WHOM YOU HAVE DISGWACED IN FASHIONABLE SOCIETY ALL ME LIFE, AR cpaainn : Father (indignantly); DisGRACED YOU, YOU FOOL, How ? ‘Peror (moodily): SING WHAT THOU WILT! pied linstrel (in great glee); COMRADES, COMRADES, EVER SINCE WE WERE ROYS, Som (sobbing); BY—BV—C-O-M-PEL-ING ME TO RE SUPFOKTED BY—AW—MAN— fTc., ETC, WHO HAS HAD TO—AW—WORK FOR HIS MONEY, GET OUT OF MY SIGHT: YOU LAZY GOOD-FOR-NOTHING IDIOT! comicbooks.com