Life, 1901-05-23 · page 8 of 22
Life — May 23, 1901 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Life's Hall of Fame" Cartoon Analysis This satirical illustration depicts seven famous figures standing on pedestals, identified by name plates below: G. Washington Aguinaldo, Munificent Sage, John Drew, Barrie, Willie Hearst, Alfred Austin Dutt, and Zangwill. The cartoon appears to mock the concept of "fame" by presenting these men—likely celebrities, politicians, and cultural figures from the early 1900s—as statues in a hall of fame. A small figure examines them, suggesting ironic reverence for men whose actual merit is questionable. The facing article, "An Unfortunate Trade," discusses George Smith, a London publisher, satirizing the publishing business as undignified work despite its prominence. The cartoon likely reinforces this critique by treating famous men as inflated monuments to commercial success rather than genuine achievement.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
434 Our Little American Band. IERPONT MORGAN Plays the organ, Hanna beats the drum, McKinley plays the tambourine, And Teddy goes “pom-pom, Pom-pow, pom-pom,” All alone, On his own trombone— The music is so sweet, They gather all y another street. F. G. Howard. An Unfortunate Trade. MBE: GEORGE SMITH, of London, Av4 who died the other day, had been a successful publisher for half a century and was a good example of what a publisher of the olds He had had a large family of auth: including Thackeray, Ruskin, Brown- ing and Trollope. Apparently he liked ‘LIFE: them and they him. He used to dine his authors often. He bet money freely on the success of their works, and sometimes lost. In his old age he completed the publication of the “Dictionary of National (British) Biography,” a work in sixty volumes, admirably carried out, very valuable to the world and indispensable to great libraries, but unprofitable to its publisher. It is a monument to Mr. Smith, and it is gratifying to know that he could afford it, for he was good LIFE'S HALL OF FAME. at trading and investment, and by selling not only books but Apollinaris water and other profitable wares he made and kept himself affluent in gratifying every substantial measure. The old school publisher was a fine figure of a man, and it is not pleasant to have him pass away. Publishers still make a living, but somehow the business as a door to immense afflu- ence seems hardly to have held its own with other lines of trade. The bank- ers, the dry-goods men, the ironmon- gers and the oil dealers and railroad men never were richer than now, but no American publisher is preposter- ously affluent, unless it is Mr. Pier- pont Morgan. For the credit of litera- ture and for the sake of old times, one could wish there were one or two pub- lishers who could build houses like Mr. Carnegie’s on Fifth Avenue, and keep yachts, country places, expensive bulldogs and racing stables. But after all, the author is getting his own nowadays, and probably things are better as they are. When the middle- men get very, very rich, there is a bi for the suspicion that the pro- ducer and the consumer are contribu- ting overmuch to their support. The contemporary publisher is at least not much open to suspicious of that sort. comicbooks.com