Life, 1894-09-20 · page 5 of 16
Life — September 20, 1894 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 181 **Top Cartoon:** A fashionable woman returns from summer vacation utterly exhausted, surrounded by scattered luggage and picnic debris. The caption ironically notes that vacations involve "hard work" and questions whether "the game is worth the candle"—satirizing the supposed leisure of wealthy women's summer retreats, which apparently proves more taxing than city life. **Bottom Section ("News from Newport"):** Commentary on a reported picnic incident involving society figures James J. Van Alen, Ogden Mills, and the Honorable P. Belmont. The text humorously discusses competing claims about whose idea the picnic was, mentioning mishaps like spilled coffee and marmalade. It mocks both the trivial nature of high-society gossip and the social pretensions of Newport's elite.
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POOR GIRL! SHE HAS HAD A LONG VACATION, BUT IS MORE EXHAUSTED THAN WHEN SHE LEFT THF CITY, SOMETIMES THERE 1S HARD WORK IN THESE SUMMER VACATIONS, DON'T YOU KNOW, AND ONE FINDS TOO LATE THAT THE GAME IS NOT WORTH THE CANDLE: NEWS FROM NEWPORT. E learn from the Mazl and Express that Mr. James J. Van Alen, Mr. Ogden Mills and Hon, Perry Belmont are talking of giving a picnic, perhaps on Thursday, but no date has yet been set. Whose idea was it ? This should have been stated, for in con- ceptions of such a nature, impartial justice ought to be rendered. It is manifestly unfair for Mr. Ogden Mills and the Honorable P. Belmont to share the glory of the thought if Mr. J. J. Van Alen was the originator. If, on the other hand, the keen intellect of Mr. Belmont shot forth this glorious fancy upon an anxious world he alone should bear the honors. And so with the perhaps too modest Mr. Ogden Mills. If his invention, why should the reporter slice the immortality, for the benefit of the Van Alen and the Belmont? But on this point, the reporter has left us in suspense. There is a sadder possibility in this mysterious announce- ment, but we shrink from dwelling on it. The paragraph in question is, to the reader who misses its hidden meanings, unspeakably trivial and flat. Now it is conceivable that the reporter knew this scheme to be the joint production of the three intellects in question, and he was so surprised at even this result that he hastened to publish it. But this theory, although simple and inviting, we are inclined to reject as unfair to Messrs. Van Alen, Belmont and Mills, While none of them have a national reputation for any form of mental superiority, it by no means follows that they are below the average in ordinary every-day intelligence. Let us rather accept the kinder theory that if the item is worth publishing at all, it is owing to some subtle beauty of a hidden thought. And even upon this basis we fear its publication was a mistake, as the public at large—and we regret to say it—cares relatively little whether these three per- sons are at home or onapicnic. This indifference is possibly due to the belief that these gentlemen would be out of danger in either case. Stylish citizens of this description although less interesting perhaps than some others still have their uses in the world. And we should all be sorry to have them stung to death by bees or carried off by an excess of hard boiled eggs. Sardines are another picnic danger, and we earnestly hope that if this outing takes place the Mills, Van Alen and Belmont interiors may be spared the painful sensa- tions that often follow and even attend these rural festivities. If we read, later on, in the Maz? and Express, that Mr. J. Jonas Alen poured the coffee down a lady's back, that Mr. O. Van Mills wore a hat full of marmalade, or that the Honorable B. Pelmont sat upon the only pie, we shall attribute it, not to intoxication, but to the ordinary luck of picnics.