Life, 1895-07-11 · page 7 of 16
Life — July 11, 1895 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 23 This page contains literary criticism and domestic humor rather than political satire. The upper text discusses **Dr. Atwood**, a character in American fiction traditionally depicted as a brutal mill owner with "self-made gold." The author argues that in reality, local rich men are often ordinary and viewed as community assets—making it harder for decent people to oppose them. The lower section, titled "She Was Lucky," presents a domestic joke about marriage comparisons. A woman complains her husband constantly compares her unfavorably to his first wife. Her friend responds that she's fortunate—at least he only compares her to two predecessors, implying the friend's husband makes comparisons to multiple ex-wives. The accompanying sketches humorously illustrate physical comedy involving children and adults.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
> LIFE- 23 Mr. Perry describes a ball match it is the real thing, and any one who knows the game will get his own particular thrill from it. When he pictures a great fire in the Plated City. you are there with the rest of the boys, and are enjoy- ing all the pleasurable excitement that a great destruction of property creates in the breast of even a stern moralist. But the best thing in the book is the character of Dr. Atwood — shrewd, forceful and deeply pathetic. For a good many years the American mill owner has been depicted in fiction as a vulgarian and a brute, whose natural feelings are all encrusted with his self-made gold. But every one who has lived in our smaller cities and towns knows that in most cases the local rich man is of very much the same kind of stuff as the best of his neighbors—and that the decent people look upon him as a power for good in the community Indeed, the smaller the city the harder it is for any man to prosper contrary to the good will of the decent people in it. Droch. THE SWEET GIRL GRADUATE TRYING IN VAIN TO FIND SOME- THING SHE DOES NOT KNOW ALREADY. SHE WAS LUCKY. ss HE is eternally comparing me to his first wife, to my disadvantage.” “ You don’t know how well off you are. Wait till you are married to a man who compares you not only to his first, but to his second and third.”