Life, 1896-08-27 · page 13 of 18
Life — August 27, 1896 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes **Tsar Nicholas II of Russia** through mock-serious announcements. Life magazine humorously "announces" it has hired Nicholas II as a foreign correspondent for $6 per column to cover Russia—a joke mocking both the Tsar's autocratic power and American media's sensationalism. The cartoons caricature Nicholas II as an absurd, imperious figure (left image: "The New Czar" shows him pompously seated). The satire suggests that even absolute monarchs are subject to American commercial enterprise and journalistic appetite. A secondary joke references **Richard Harding Davis**, a famous war correspondent Life actually competed to recruit. The page also includes unrelated satirical items: commentary on wealthy Americans abroad economizing during financial hardship, and a jab at an unnamed politician whose career avoided scandal only because he was perpetually under "legislative investigation." The overall tone mocks American ambition, Russian autocracy, and political corruption with characteristic turn-of-century irreverence.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LIFE: NICK CONSENTS! The Czar of All the Russias Falls in Line With Our Proposition. AILING in our efforts to secure Richard Harding Davis, Lire is pleased to announce that his ma- jesty, Nicholas II. of Russia, has decided to accept our princely offer of $6.00 a column, and will hereafter cover Russia (including Siberia) for this journal. Nicholas needs no introduction to our millions of readers, and while his debut as a member of our staff will occasion no surprise to those who are already so familiar with our well-known enterprise, we justly feel that we should make some mention of it merely to THE NEW CZAR. show that we are sparing no expense to make Lire the greatest paper on earth. The Prince of Wales has just cabled us as follows: ‘“LIFE, ‘New York. “Nick has told me all. him, Wish you all success. Congratulations on getting Ma sends love. “ALLY.” (Collect.} The accompanying picture of Nicholas is said to bea striking likeness, 6c ID you develop your arms any this summer?” “Yes; I was the only man at Lake View.” WANDERING FROM THE SUBJECT. DOWN TO HARDPAN. HIS is the third summer since the Americans began to feel poor, LiFe wonders whether the inhabitants of Europe have noticed as yet any change in the habits of our countrymen who go abroad in summer. Do Russian princes and Americans still have the first-class carriages to themselves, and are the Americans still the only people to whom small econ- omies are not worth while? If values keep on shrinking long enough and profits continue to hang fire, it may presently produce a change in American habits that they will not outgrow. PROTECTED. “NOT a breath of scandal ever touched his official career,” “Why should it? He was the subject of a legislative investigation during most of the time he was in office.” comicbooks.com