Life, 1901-07-04 · page 13 of 20
Life — July 4, 1901 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes upper-class leisure and irrationality through a horse-racing narrative. The main cartoon depicts a prison chaplain delivering pious words to inmates (shown in striped uniforms)—a visual joke contrasting the preacher's sanctimonious message about suffering and redemption with the captive, trapped audience forced to listen. The accompanying story mocks Mrs. Swimbleton's frivolous decision-making: she selects a racehorse based entirely on whimsical logic—her aunt's involvement, a luncheon sauce, and the jockey's outfit colors—rather than the horse's actual merit. Sam's initial resistance to her absurd reasoning becomes resignation. The smaller cartoon vignettes ("Does she love me now, or is this only a jolly?" and "The Fourth. Boys will be boys") use comic exaggeration to comment on human behavior and courtship. The satire targets the pretensions and illogical choices of the wealthy leisure class, suggesting their decisions are no more rational than children's play.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“ny WORDS OF CHEER. race, Sam insisted that Mrs. Swimbleton should select the horse to carry their ten dollars, on the theory of beginner's luck. 28 SHE LOVE ME NOW, OR 18 THIS ONLY 4 JOLLY?” There were eleven horses in the race, and by some feminine process of selection Mrs. Swimbleton finally resolved her choice down to two—Hetty Prince, because her Aunt Hetty’s money was involved in the day's enjoyment, and Tartarus, because the sauce tartare they had had with their lobster at luncheon was especially good. When she RIENDS, THERE 18 A FUTURE 1L1PE AWAITING ALL OF Us! AND IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE SUFFERED POR TOUR SINS IN THIS LIPE, BEAR IN MIND THAT THIS 18 NOTHING TO WHAT AWAITS You!" looked at the jockeys’ colors and found that the one who rode Hetty Prince was to wear purple and yellow—colors she had always detested—she immediately settled on Tar- tarus because his jockey’s cap and jacket were of white with blue spots, a color com- bination very becoming to her own fair skin and light eyes. When Sam went down into the betting ring and saw the odds he was inclined to rebel against his wife's selection, but remembering that there were five other THE FOURTH. BOYS WILL BE Boys.