Life, 1901-12-26 · page 2 of 33
Life — December 26, 1901 — page 2: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This page is primarily **advertising**, not satire or political commentary. It promotes the John Ruszits Fur Company's luxury goods. The central image shows an **empress in coronation robes**—likely the Russian Czarina, based on the text's reference to "Czarina of Russia." The accompanying story describes how designer Mme. Barruti claimed to have made a coronation robe for the Czarina, used this (false) prestige to establish credit in Paris, and defrauded creditors of £1,200,000 before being discovered and committing suicide. The advertisement's point: Ruszits fur company **now owns that seized robe**, which cost $10,000 in embroidery alone and has a 27-foot train. This real robe—allegedly connected to Russian royalty—serves as proof of the company's access to the finest materials and craftsmanship, lending them legitimacy and prestige to customers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
COPYRIGHT FOR GREAT GRITAIN BY JAMES HENDERSON UNDER THE ACY OF te0: THE RUSZITS FURS AWARDED GOLD MEDAL (Highest Prize) Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901 N° more convincing argument concerning the intrinsic merits of our productions could be made than this simple statement of actual facts. During the half-century of our existence we have sold in New York City to the best trade of both this and foreign countries over $20,000,000 worth of Furs. No such compre- hensive line of high class, moderate-priced garments can be found in any similar establishment in the world. 'T IS probable that Mme. Barruti, famed in Paris a decade ago as a designer of beautiful gowns, had never heard of Abraham Lin- coln, but she fooled ‘ali the people some of the tine,” and in the ~. end took her own life. The story of her fraud has to do with as interesting a bit of raseality as ever was planned. It all came from a magnificent robe which Mme. Barruti averred that she was making for the Czarina of Russia to wear at her coronation, Certainly it was a robe which the Czarina need not have been ashamed to put about her shoulders, but the point of the story is that she did not know Mme. Barruti. On the strength of this tale of royal patronage, and by placing on exhibition the robe itself, Mme. Barruti established practically unlimited credit in Paris, Ina few months she owed $1,200,000. ‘Then the crash came. The most gigantic fraud in the history of Paris was discovered before its author could turn any of her riches into cash. Disgraced and ruincd, she cheated the prison by taking poison. ‘The robe was seized by her creditors and sold at auction. The robe is now owned by the John Ruszits Fur Company of this city. The original cost of the garment was more than $40,000, the em- broidery alone costing $10,000. It is made of cardinal silk velvet, with a train twenty-seven feet long. It is superbly embroidered in gold thread —not gilt — the desiga being formed of cornucopias. The lining is made up of 1,400 choicest crmines. With the robe is a gown of white satin, cut en train and embroidered in go'd to match, The train of the robe is ‘so heavy that nineteen pages would be required to carry it, a royal following in itself. Come to our Show-rooms and see this remarkable production Special Lines for Holiday Trade | JOHN RUSZITS FUR COMPANY | MANUFACTURING FURRIERS 73, 75. 77 MERCER STREET, Bet. Broome and Spring Streets, NEW YORK [_ Telephone. 4325 Spring comicbooks.com