Life, 1898-03-03 · page 5 of 20
Life — March 3, 1898 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This page presents "Worm's-Eye Views of Us: The Menagerie"—a satirical circular illustration depicting American society as viewed from below, like from a worm's perspective. The image shows various social classes and types arranged around a circle, suggesting a hierarchical or interconnected social structure. The accompanying text "As to Genealogy" traces American ancestry humorously, claiming descent from various colonial settlers and noble families. The satire mocks Americans' obsession with genealogy and inherited status, suggesting that most ancestry derives from ordinary colonists rather than nobility. The reference to "spindle-legged tables" and other possessions pokes fun at how people claim aristocratic lineage through material objects. The overall message critiques American pretension about social hierarchy and bloodline.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
As to Genealogy. Eall know of the three brothers who came to America in the Mayflower, one of whom usually went south, There were some thousands of these brothers, We all know of the noble families who came from the sauer- kraut ranches of Hol- land to New Amster- dam and had large WORM'S-EYE VIEWS OF US. TAE MENAGERIE. farms on the Bowery, with colonial homes near the Battery. We all know of the troops of younger sons of the gallant Cavaliers who settled in Vir- ginia, and had broad plantations and armies of servants to till the soil, and who married the immediate descendants of Pocahontas. From these we are descended. We don't know of any other people who came to New England, New York or Virginia, and we doubt if there were such, It certainly can- not be proven to-day by the possession of spindle-legged tables, eight-day clocks, and Nurenburg hand-painted family portraits in two-inch gilt frames. But what we want to know about our ancestry is something more than glittering generalities, Let us genealogize. Thus we form a society to display which of us descend from those who were officers in the Revolution. There was one private soldier, and eleven of his widows are on to-day's pen- sion list. This society is overlaid by another, composed of those descended from the bush- whackers of the colonial wars, and so on back until all our American ancestry is discreetly explored by the genealogist, with a probe in one hand and an extinguisher in the other. But we must get back of America. AS George IIT. said: “It is too fresh.” Hence the comicbooks.com