Life, 1895-08-01 · page 11 of 14
Life — August 1, 1895 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Triumph of the Summer Girl" This page satirizes high-society opera culture and fashionable pretension. The top illustration depicts skeletal Death figures attending an opera—a visual joke suggesting that boring, pretentious operatic performances are literally deadly. The bottom cartoon shows two well-dressed gentlemen (appearing to be opera patrons or impresarios) with German captions in mock-formal dialect, likely mocking affected European cultural snobbery. The accompanying article references a scandal involving an opera called "Le Voyage d'Orphée" and a character named Bangster, performed in Vienna in 1892. It criticizes the pretentious Giltedge family, who use high culture as social status signaling while the article suggests their circle is filled with frauds and poseurs claiming sophistication they lack. The satire targets wealthy Americans' obsessive mimicry of European cultural authority.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE TRIUMPH OF THE SUMMER GIRL. The Giltedges announced their function and advertised Bang- flowers and a squad of police. Fitzgall of the Planet, ster; and on the fateful night the house was gorgeous with lights, a high priest of the musical cult, remembered the sensation Banagski made in Vienna in ‘92. Fitzgall could remember anything at card prices, and could whistle figures in four languages. Bangster was finally led in looking like an understudy of the Wild Man of Borneo. The following programme created a furore : 1. OveRTURE, ‘Le Voyageur d’Arkinsaw.” Jones. Rhapsodie de Stimbote. 2, Opus V. A dream of rabbits. Banagski. (2) Aria with drum obligato. (6) Nocturne with absinthe. 3. Fouk Soscs or Boston, - - Arlo Bates. The affair was a tremendous success. Society wept over the lunch. Fitzgall gave it a column at annual rates in the Planet, Mrs. Giltedge at once became a patron of the German opera and is referred to in the idiot columns of the Sunday press as a distinguished musical amateur. Bangster has long hair, a host of fashionable pupils, and dyspepsia, and he has aban- doned art. Giltedge lives almost wholly at the club, for his house he declares is the haunt of fiddlers, organ-grinders and German freaks. And Quillby! Well Quillby winks, and declares that society is great “DIT YER HEAR DOT ISAACBERG VOS TROWNDED?” ‘“*UNT SERF HIM RIGHT. VOT DID HE VANT TER GO INTO DE VATER FOR? HIS FADER NEFER TOOK A PATH, NOR HIS GRANTFADER aLreppy Stuff, and social eminence cheap at $1,500. PEFORE Wis, VoT covLD HE EXPEC?” Joseph Smith. comicbooks.com