Life, 1894-02-01 · page 6 of 14
Life — February 1, 1894 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 70 This page contains two distinct pieces: **"A Victim of Destiny"** (left column) is a satirical dialogue mocking American class mobility. It presents the pessimistic view that a poor person has no viable path forward—lacking money for business, profession, or politics. The piece cynically suggests that even obtaining a farm requires excessive capital, leaving poverty as inevitable. The satire targets both the economic system's barriers and the American myth of upward mobility. **"Down in Arkansas"** (bottom illustration) depicts rural working-class characters in a humorous anecdote. The crude dialect and the story about a dangerous encounter with a gun suggest satirical commentary on rural American violence and frontier culture, presented for urban readers' amusement at rural life's rough nature. Both pieces reflect early 20th-century Life magazine's satirical critique of American society and class divisions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LURE * THE AMERICAN COMEDY. axe ak A VICTIM OF DESTINY. OOR chap! So! Why? There is nothing for him to do! No living to make ? His came ready-made. No business ? If he went into business he might lose what he has. No profession ? Why should any one learn a profession if he doesn’t mean to practice it; and why should any one practice a profession if he doesn’t need to earn money ? But there's art, science, literature ! Nothing to be done in cither except by buckling down ; and why should a man want to buckle down unless he has to? Politics ! It is so difficult and so expensive to buy political oppor- tunity in the United States, and it takes But the associa. Yes, but there’. ¢ then— Well? He'd get out again after a while and have to go to blazes all over again. . Do his kind always go to blazes? Oh, no; not all. What saves them ? Why, some of them—a good many—experience, after a time, an atrophy of the aspirations—something like paralysis, but it doesn’t kill, and the sufferers go about after it much the same as before, but easier in their minds. Poor things! _ It’s dull; but they get used to it, and they don't suffer. Some of them even come to pity, and even to look down on people who do not share their affliction. Here, in America, they are a small class all by themselves, and have colonies, like epileptics, and a name of their own, A name? Why, yes, you know: Our Leisure Class. sight be bad, even there. wholesome restraint anyhow; but ES. M. OM DENVER: this morning. ETHEL: Was he on horseback ? Tom DENVER: Well, off and on. Saw Tommy Davidson in the park so much talent and such incessant schem- ing to earn it! And then besides—— And besides ? If you get any kind of a regular job, even in politics, you've got to stick to it. He might get married ; that would be something. Yes; he will some day, perhaps; but, you know, even that you have to stick to, He might have a farm. But that costs so much. He's only a one-millionaire—not rich enough for that. Poor chap! What can he do? Well, he'll spend the Spring in Florida and hire a yacht this Summer, and have some horses in the Fall, and spend the Winter at Pau or somewhere; and, of course, he'll manage to worry along. But life must seem so aimless to him, poor chap! So it must! And. of course, when a man has so much time on his hands there is the natural tendency to beguile more or less of it with beverages, and then—and then— Oh, yes; of course, there are drawbacks and hazards about it. Poor chap! Yes, the future seems so black for him. It would almost seem a real mercy to have him into court and get him com- mitted, don’t you think > PILLS! DOWN IN ARKANSAS. “WELL, Jim, How's THE AGUE?” ““Dion'r I TELL you aBouT THAT? Why, I WENT INTO OLD MAN SHARP'S FIELD ONE NIGHT ABOUT A WEEK AGO, AND THE OLD MAN GOT UP AND LOADED HIS OUN IN THE DARK, 'N’ CUSS ME IF HE DIDN'T BLOW ME FULL OF TWO-GRAIN QUININE I HAIN'T HAD AN ACHE NOR SHAKE SINCE.”