Life, 1897-06-03 · page 8 of 20
Life — June 3, 1897 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 468 This page satirizes American wealth and aristocratic pretension. The decorative header depicts skulls, establishing a memento mori theme about mortality and vanity. The main text mocks newly rich American industrialists ("Our aristocracy is new, raw and flamboyant") who mimic European refinement. It criticizes their conspicuous consumption—specifically whiskey aging and collecting—as hollow status-seeking. The illustration shows two ape-like caricatures examining documents, captioned "ISN'T THAT AWFUL!" This appears to reference the "Ancestors" section header (visible at left), likely satirizing how wealthy Americans fabricate genealogies to claim old-money legitimacy. The comparison to primates emphasizes their perceived lack of breeding or genuine cultural sophistication. The satire targets the gap between Americans' actual social origins and their aspirations to established gentility.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ANC ES TORS e Bi ave HERE are those gentle bards of song That once we used to know? WHERE? Alas! a swifter gait they went, On They conquered but to die; Beneath the Colored Supple- They were a sweet and soulful ment throng, Of classic pace, and slow. Their ashes buried lie. Fame's eternal dumping- ground Their vanished names are spread, And glory guards with grief profound The pay-roll of the dead. LIFE’S PERSONALLY CONDUCTED TOURS. PROLOGUE AND PROSPECTUS. UR Ameri- can Aris- tocracy is the most restless on land or sea; it is continually flitting, like a gorgeous, droning bug, 1 tom place to place ;_ restless, ~ brilliant, elusive, flashing here and dazzling there with all the impressive grandeur of a variety 9 artist's breastpin. One American aristocrat in the Buddhist Nirvana would give nervous prostration to every one of the billions of leisurely shades in that quiet retreat. Of course the thoughtless deride this per- petual locomotion; the super- ficial deplore it ; the unscientific condemn the social flutterers, and the inert and lazy resent them with a snortful anger. Yet there is a sound philosophy underlying this whirling dervish- ism; there is reason in the selec- tion of St, Vitus as society's patron; these social grubs and butterflies are following a well-known natural law in their laudable efforts to provide a vulgar and unappreciative republic with an aristocracy of guaranteed old families. Every chemist knows that motion produces on certain spirits the same results as long stretches of time ; hence certain processes are in vogue among eminent distillers to give to raw and inexperienced brands of whiskey that smoothness and age so much admired in the refined and thirsty military circles of Kentucky. Our aristocracy is new, raw and flam- boyant, and has a laudable ambition to be smooth, ancient and dignified ; and if the chemical formula of mo- “snr tion, agitation and hustle is not so successful with new blood as with new whiskey, it can at least give to a raw, crude, embryotic /aut fon a shiny, slickery, shellac-like finish that is the despair and envy of some of our most eminent bunko steerers. A millionaire just from the gulch in the pig-iron stage, a distinguished soap-maker, an eminent railroad wrecker sweet and fresh from the THAT AWFUL!’ comichooks.