Life, 1894-08-02 · page 11 of 16
Life — August 2, 1894 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 75 This page contains two distinct satirical pieces: **Top cartoon:** Shows a military officer pointing at a small child by a doorway, illustrating advice about social climbing through ostentatious displays of wealth—owning yachts, racing horses, and large estates to impress "society people." **"Time Enough" dialogue:** A lawyer counsels a client (Mrs. Smith) seeking divorce, noting she's endured an "unvarying" husband for twenty years. The joke hinges on her complaint that she's tired of the *name* Smith—suggesting her real grievance is social embarrassment rather than actual marital cruelty. **"Joining a Friend" cartoon:** Shows adults and children at leisure, depicting comfortable middle-class recreation. **"The Genuine New Yorker" dialogue:** Satirizes New York affectation—a woman identifies someone as a "genuine New Yorker" not by what he says, but by his unconscious mannerisms and absorbed local qualities. The page satirizes social pretension and class consciousness in early 20th-century America.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
these questions in the columns of the Sunday newspapers, and then go directly contrary to their advice. Now for the great leap—the grand coup—the opening of the gate with the golden key which you hold in your hand. The old way of going about from summer-resort to summer-resort, and truckling to people on the piazzas, is no longer of value. In fact you would not find the people you want in such places. In these days when the possession of a fortune is so ordinary a factor, its value is subordinated to the knowledge of how to use it. You must do everything and must do it on a large scale. To not every one is it vouchsafed to make the riffle so simply and so cheaply, as by buying a fast yacht and going over to be beaten in a sportsmanlike manner by the Prince of Galls. You must have a big town house, two or three country houses where the right people go, a cruising yacht, a racing yacht, and a running stable. Buy these things from the right people—you will always find society people who have such things to sell—conduct your negotiations in a generous but deliberate manner, and you will soon find your acquaintance being cultivated. Make your husband join all the clubs which are not likely to black-ball him. Let your sons spend money freely at college, and let your daughters go in for charity with fat purses. Then—ah, happy day!—you will awake some morning to realize that you are really in! And as time rolls on you will snub other people who are trying to get in. Eventually you may gain the proud power to snub those who snubbed you. And then, very dear madame, you will realize the truth of the opening sentence of this epistle. But we shall wish you joy, and shall have no greater pity for you than for anyone who has at last succeeded in getting into Bloomingdale. Meanwhile we remain, Very humbly yours, LiFe. THE GENUINE NEW YORKER. ~HE: I meta genuine New Yorker to-day. HE: Did he tell you he was from New York ? SHE: Tellme? Of course not, That's how I knew he was a real New Yorker. He just let me find it out by instinct, or absorption, or somehow, I couldn’t for the life of me say. Airs, Growler: 1 THINK WE'D BETTER MOVE ON, IF WE DON'T WANT OUR FURS TAKEN ON STORAGE. TIME ENOUGH. | [ead : But, Mrs. Smith, it seems to me that you have absolutely no cause for desiring a divorce. You tell me that in all the twenty years of your married life your husband has treated you with unvarying kindness, and that—— FAIR CLIENT: No cause? How long do you imagine it requires for one to become thoroughly tired of the name of Smith ? “JOINING A FRIEND.”