Life, 1892-08-04 · page 11 of 16
Life — August 4, 1892 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 67 The page contains two satirical pieces about American social pretension: **"Casabianca's Luck"** mocks a boy attending a wedding on a "burning deck," satirizing dramatic self-sacrifice in literature. **"The Cheerful Givers"** ridicules upper-class wedding gift-giving customs. Characters discuss the expense and obligation of attending multiple society weddings, with complaints about required gifts and attendance costs. One guest notes they've attended five weddings this season for one man (Joe Lefther/Harding), and another mentions a groom demanding expensive gifts while remaining unemployed. **The cartoon below** depicts an East Coast woman bragging about Western architectural improvements to a visitor from Boston. The Bostonian responds sarcastically that Kansas City has more architectural styles in one building than all of New England—a jab at both Western pretension and Eastern snobbery about regional sophistication.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LI CASABIANCA’'S LUCK. HE boy stood on the burning deck, The air with smoke was blue, But no one asked him—blessed lot— ‘Ist hot enough for you THE CHEERFUL GIVERS. N the wedding night the last silken train had swept the rice from the marble steps, and the carriages had rolled away through the gathering darkness, In the library, where all was quiet, the wedding gifts were whis- pering together. “How beastly dull it seems, now all is over!" said the chafing dish, crossly. “Tam bound to say we shall be bored to death if they leave us here till morning,” rustled an edstion de luxe of Tennyson's poems. “No wonder I am blue,” gurgled the punch-bowl, “ You FE- 67 should have heard Captain Goldby when he read the invitation. He said it meant just seventy-five dollars, and he'd be blankety blanked glad when all his old friends’ daughters were married.” “Ethel told her mother that 1 was real skimpy, but hers was the thirteenth invitation young Harding has received, and he will go without his lunch a week to pay for me,” sighed the cream ladle. Never mind, creamy,” said the souvenir spoons, “ Hunter sent us and hoped we'd choke Tom some day, for he has cut him out five times this season, and Ethel was his last chance.” “Joe Lefther was engaged to Ethel,” tittered the ormolu clock. ‘He said there was really no use in sending me for they'd have a regular time of their own when he discovered her temper.” And the presents subsided with a faint giggle, for they thought they heard the maid coming, but it was only a little mouse securing cake for his own wedding. E.V.M., From Boston: 1 UNDERSTAND YOU HAVE MADE GREAT IMPROVEMENTS IN YOUR ARCHITECTURE IN THE WEST. In the Hammock: [MPROVEMENTS—WELL I GU WE HAVE IN ONE BUILDING THAN YOU HAVE IN THE WHOLE OF New ENGLAND Why, at Kansas CITY WE HAVE MORE STYLES OF ARCHITECTURE D. comicbooks.com