Life, 1896-07-09 · page 12 of 18
Life — July 9, 1896 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Pharmaceutical Autocrat" – Life Magazine Satire This page satirizes the humiliating social dynamics of purchasing postage stamps from pharmacy clerks in the late 19th/early 20th century. The main article mocks how customers must defer to these "stamp-purveyors," who wielded petty authority over ordinary people needing stamps. The piece ironically describes customers' desperate attempts to appease these clerks through small purchases of patent medicines or dental supplies. The dialogue cartoon below satirizes class pretension. A working-class nurse (likely Irish, indicated by dialect) rebukes a snobby woman named Feodora for condescension. The nurse asserts that caring for Chinese infants doesn't diminish her dignity—she has feelings equal to anyone else's. The bottom cartoons contrast past Eastern/Western differences with present similarities, suggesting modernization has equalized global cultures. The satire targets both petty bureaucratic power and class-based social snobbery.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-LIFE: THE PHARMACEUTICAL AUTOCRAT. FERIIETTETE 6 mn re cvueny ene mime 2 of his fellows is the Drug-Clerk- Purveyor- i of -Stamps. Who has not experienced the abject sense of shame, the total loss of self-respect, the awful realization of his eleemosynary condition in society when facing this autocrat and petitioning for stamps ! Some diplomats have attempted propitiatory measures prior to stamp purchases by investments in his chemical wares, One to whom no Heaven-sent Tired - Feeling ren- dered a seventy-five cent bottle necessary, nor kind lean- ness awarded by Fate made Cod Liver Oil imperative, has even been found smoothing the way to tolerance of the deg- radation in stamp-purchasing by a five -cent ball of chalk or a spool of dental floss. A devotional attitude at the directory is not wholly un- availing. A studied review of column after column of Smiths, Kellys, ete., gives a reflected light of literary beauty toone’s countenance—or is it the deterential acknowledg- ment of his workshop's treasures ?—that recommends itself to the descendant of the great Esculapius. What heroism has the Soda-fountain witnessed in this connection? Egg- phosphate, strawberry-mash, our own Grevadine and sundry bibulous trifles have been resorted to. Not with a spirit of rivalry or emulation towards the matinee ai girl; with no thought of usurping her prescriptive right, but q q in the same spirit which drained the Hemlock potion cen- | turies ago—the spirit to dare or die, i tlh The famous war between Uncle Sam and John Bull had to deal with stamps galore. Possibly the Commission sitting at the present critical juncture, might find in total abolition of stamps the healing of old wounds, the olive branch of peace. This abolition—"'a consummation devoutly to be wished” by so great a majority ‘composed of stamp-clerks and buyees) by removing the indignity to office offered to the former, and assuaging the wounded feelings of the latter would (we deprecate all indignation at figure of speech) evoke a general OH! THE SHAME OF IT. E, FEODORA, IT’S A NO USE O° YOUR STANDIN’ THERE US DER MILO A PUTTIN’ ON AIRS, I'LL GIVE YOU A POINTER, NUSSE3 HAS FEELINKS JUST THE SAME AS OTHER FOLKS, AN’ I WON'T TAK £0’ YOUR SASS, AN’ DON'T YER FORGIE IT! stampede towards the millennium. Feodora (with intense bitterness): NOTHINK CAN'T BE EXPECTED BET- S.C. Very. TER OF NO ONE WHO SO FAR FORGITS HERSELF AS TO TAKE CARE OF CHINEE H'INFANTS, FORMERLY THERE WERE WIDER DIFFERENCE: THE ORIENT AND THE OCCIDENT THAN EXIST AT PRESENT.