Life, 1897-07-01 · page 14 of 20
Life — July 1, 1897 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes Newport, Rhode Island's wealthy elite during the Gilded Age. The photograph shows a rock inscribed with tourists' names—mocking how even the geography gets branded by visitors seeking status. The text attacks Newport's "nobility" as newly rich fraudsters: railroad looters and swindlers masquerading as aristocrats through hyphenated names (Bradley-Martin = "blue blood"). The satire skewers their constant social climbing, where successful financiers undergo "probation of snubbing" before acceptance, then "blow themselves riotously" while men "live days of toil and plunder." The cartoon illustration labeled "Getting Points from a Few Well-Red Men" (likely showing nouveau riche types) reinforces the mockery of their pretense. The author argues that despite Oriental-style mansions and decorators' efforts, Newport's wealthy remain culturally unfit—needing not just architecture but "a school for decent manners" to be "tolerable to the ordinary American."
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A VIEW AT NEWPORT. bills or to furnish credit, This rule makes the nobility and gentry civil to each other, and ,, renders promotion easier for the fellows who hope to pass an old age of leisure at Newport instead of in State institutions, S but who are now engaged in looting rail- roads and bunkoing widows and orphans, i) . . . ws HE hyphen at Newport is the solemn J} badge of superiority. Martin is no- body; Bradley means nothing; but Bradley- Martin means blue blood. The membership of Newport's nobility is con- stantly changing. The busted aristocrat retires to live on the ragged edge where trade meets society, and to exploit apologetic shops, where he is patronized by those still solvent, and spoken to familiarly by the coming rich. New blood comes from the waiting list of successful financiers, who have been under- going a probation of snubbing, toadying and nickel-plated splurging. When they arrive the women are dazed with their luck and ee \ Sug, GETTING POINTS FROM A FEW WELL-RED MEN, blow themselves riotously; the men live days of toil and plunder to pay the piper, and pass nights of mortifi- cation and rage trying to conceal their unfitness for w termed ‘* polite societ Newport's villas, castles and man- sions extend along the cliffs over- looking the sea, and have an Oriental splendor about them. Thanks to landscape gardeners, architects, mil- liners and upholsterers, the nobility are garbed and housed in the sem- blance of civilization, and if a school for decent manners could be added to the Casino, they would be made tolerable to the ordinary American. . . * is jocosely XCURSIONISTS rush to New- port in hordes and are allowed to gaze on the curiosities when chap- eroned by respectable hackmen, who point out the gilded cages and name