Life, 1898-04-07 · page 9 of 20
Life — April 7, 1898 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This page from *Life* magazine contains a satirical cartoon and dialogue mocking marital discord and wealth disparities. The illustration shows a well-dressed man seated while a woman in an evening gown stands before him, apparently confronting him about his behavior. The dialogue satirizes a husband's justifications for his vices—gambling, drinking, and infidelity—which he promises to reform once his wife accepts him. The woman's responses express cynicism about his excuses and his materialism (boasting about his large salary). The satire targets upper-class hypocrisy: a wealthy man using financial success to excuse moral failings, while his wife criticizes his shallow values. The cartoon critiques both marital inequality and the equation of wealth with respectability in Gilded Age society.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
301 “Why?” “Didn't you say he got the biggest salary in town ?” “That's like a man. So commercial. Just as if it were a matter of business.” “Tsn’t it?” “Certainly not. He doesa great deal of good.” ‘For a consideration. If L were a minister, and got well paid for it, my own vanity would spur me to success in my par- ticular field.” “But—" “The music was good, the service orderly, everybody behaved themselves, all the wo- men wore clothes that their husbands couldn't afford, and the whole affair was delightfully wsthetic, as it should have been after so much practice. The same amount of money spent on the deserving poor would have accom- plished an equal result —in a different direc- 1 are so horridly “Notat all, my dear. I am only a miscrable sinner. Afterall, Lugree with you, It wasa lovely sermon,” To Whom It May Concern. IFE will give one hun dred dollars for the best short story received at this office before June 1, 1898. Seventy-fivedollars will Le paid for the second best, and fifty dollars for the third best. Among the other sto- ries received, but not, in the judgment of the editors, entitled to any’ of these awards, Lire will pay twenty- tive dollars for each story accepted. The stories should contain a fresh, original idea, and shoul be Ameri in tone, bright, cheerful, crisp, with a good climax. They may be fanciful, sentimental, ghestly, fantastic, social, but a touch of humor is desirable, The stories must contain between fifteen hundred and two thousand words. All PAR A LITTLE. DUT I SMALL STOP IT ALL wit : manuscripts must be typewritten, and “ARE YOU SURE You cant" addressed to the Short Story Editor of “I KNOW IT! I'VE DONE IT EVERY TIME I'VE BEEN ENGAGED.” Live.