Life, 1900-10-25 · page 9 of 20
Life — October 25, 1900 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 329 The illustration depicts a crowded urban street scene titled "If Benjamin Franklin Should Come Back to Earth." The satirical point appears to be contrasting Franklin's 18th-century values with modern (early 20th-century) city life: towering buildings, electrical signs ("Daily Yellow Slab"), trolleys, and dense commercial activity overwhelm the scene. The accompanying text on the right is a poem mocking contemporary social attitudes—specifically banker excess, editorial sanctimoniousness, and moral hypocrisy. It sarcastically asks whether the reader "bankers / To smash the midriff of some hoary cad" and criticizes newspapers praising social virtue while ignoring corruption. The overall satire contrasts Franklin's principles of industriousness and virtue with modern urban corruption and materialism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
329 hard feeling in aristocratic breasts as to who was entitled to come first and be Number 1, Or Mrs. 47 might clope with Mr. 24 (such things do happen in the Four Hundred), in which case would their numbers be cancelled in the catalogue? If Miss 15 should marry Mr. 56, would this be a case of two entries with but a single num- ber as well as ‘‘ two hearts that beat as one’? And what a fearful mixing up of numbers in the -cataloguo the divorce habit would cause! Then, too, there is the question of children to be considered. Would an elaborate decimal system have to be resorted to in order to provide the next generation with numbers? Awaiting the man who can solve these problems and suc- cessfully carry out the idea, are fame, fortune, and the gratitude of the Three Million plus the Four Hundred ! Roselle Mercier, ? GENTLE READER, do you never hanker To smash the midriff of some hoary cad, Some bull-necked plutocrat or bloated banker, Whose wine is good and conver- sation bad? Do you not feel, when in your morn- ing paper You read the praises of some social frump, Asif you'd like with number tens to caper Upon the gushing editorial chump? Do you not wish that with ungov- emned passion You might go ramping through both church and state, ’ Smashing the idols that are “quite the fashion,” And jolting every ‘‘ most respect- ed” skate? Well, if you don't—if your down- trodden liver Ne'er makes you long such right- cous things to do, O gentle reader, Iam all a-quiver IF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN SHOULD COME BACK TO EARTH. To fad and kick the sawdust out of you. Winsok Me comicbooks.com