Life, 1893-01-19 · page 1 of 16
Life — January 19, 1893 — page 1: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "No False Modesty" - Life Magazine, January 19, 1893 This cartoon satirizes a wealthy man's contradictory claims about his riches. The dialogue reveals the joke: "Harold, Papa calls you a fortune hunter. I'm sorry I'm rich" / "So am I. Everybody will say that you bought me." The satire targets the social hypocrisy of the wealthy regarding marriage and money. Harold protests he's not a fortune hunter while simultaneously admitting he benefits from the woman's wealth—and worse, that society will assume he married *for* that money anyway. The cartoon mocks the false modesty and transparent self-interest of gilded-age courtship, where financial motives were acknowledged yet denied. It's commentary on how wealth corrupted romantic pretense among the elite during the 1890s.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
DLUME XXI. NEW YORK, JANUARY 109, 1893. Entered at the New York Post Office as Second-Class Mail Matter, Copyright, 1892, by Mrrcwmut & Mitte. NO FALSE MODESTY. ““HAROLD, PAPA CALLS YOU A FORTUNE HUNTER, I'm soRRY I'm RICH.” “So am I, EVERYBODY WILL SAY THAT YOU BOUGHT ME.” comicbooks.com