Life, 1892-04-07 · page 9 of 18
Life — April 7, 1892 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis The top illustration depicts a social scene with well-dressed figures presenting a document, captioned "As my rightful heir and only relative I give you this." The accompanying text describes a wealthy man transferring his fortune to an undigified, poorly-dressed figure who had been hidden away—revealing this person as the "real founder" of the family wealth, though previously disgraced. This appears to be satirizing class pretension and hidden family secrets among the wealthy. The joke targets the gap between families' public respectability and their actual origins, suggesting that proper genealogy often masks embarrassing truths about how fortunes were truly made or inherited. The page's second section, "A Modern Parable," presents a dialogue between characters called "Strawber" and "Singerly" about a lost dress suit in a Pullman car—a separate humorous anecdote about travel mishaps.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“AS MY RIGHTFUL MEIK AND ONLY RELATIVE 1 turn his eyes toward the wealthy parents and reach forth his hand. To the wonderment of all present he stepped from his gilded frame upon the sofa beneath him and then to the floor. “A disgrace to your family, | understand?” he said, with a contemptuous smile. Then approaching the trembling maiden, he placed in her hand the paper he had guarded for so many years. “ As my rightful heir and only relative I give you this, and with it my blessing.” Turning to the erstwhile haughty but now mortified parents, and pointing to the empty picture frame, he said: “ Allow me to present to you the real founder of your house.” And there in the gilded frame stood a vulgar, hard- faced man, shabbily dressed, and with no dignity in his bearing. When the eyes of the astonished company sought again the rosy General they sought in vain. He had vanished, and never more was he seen in that dwelling. The mysterious document proved to be the title toa rich estate, and Hester and her husband became at once enormously wealthy and lived happily together ever afterwards, The rosy General followed them to their new house and always occupied the place of honor on the wall. No human power could remove the undignified projenitor from the palatial drawing room and he stands there to this ® you THIS.” day. The house of course is deserted and filled with cob- webs, for no family with social ambitions can associate on equal terms with such an ancestor. J. A. Mitchell. A MODERN PARABLE. OW, there was a certain wise man who builded his house upon the sand, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, but they beat not upon that house, and it fell not, for it was in Florida, and it was founded upon the good hard dollars of Northern tourists, and the owner thereof waxed rich. And there was likewise a certain foolish man who builded his house upon a rock in Harlem, and the taxes and assessments came, and the interest upon the mortgage fell due, and the contractors on the next lot blasted under his walls and loosened them, so that it fell, and great was the fall thereof. NO WAY OUT OF IT. >TRAWBER: How does it happen that you haven't a dress suit, old man? I thought you had one. SINGERLY: I did. But I was traveling in a Pullman car the other day and gave it to the porter. STRAWBER: What on earth did you do that for? SINGERLY: What else could | do? He found out that Thad it with me. comicbooks.com