Life, 1902-10-16 · page 8 of 22
Life — October 16, 1902 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes **class anxiety and social mobility** in early 20th-century America. The story "Simon Pure" concerns **Van Oilpan**, a wealthy nouveau riche figure whose fortune comes from disreputable sources (running a tavern, auto accidents, stock manipulation). Despite his money, he's excluded from the social register—the official list of "respectable" society. The satire's target: **old money's gatekeeping**. Major Cairo Sinn defends aristocratic standards based on birth rather than accomplishment, despite Van Oilpan's actual achievements and wealth. The cartoons show him repeatedly rejected from exclusive spaces marked "No Automobiles or Bicycles Allowed on Sundays." The joke exposes the arbitrary, snobbish nature of American class barriers—wealth alone cannot buy social acceptance from the established elite.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Simon Pure. a AND you say that young Van Oilpan is one of the Four Hundred? You astonish me. I remember his old man when he ran a tavern in Coal Oil Johnny's time.’’ And Captain Pipelion shook his head. “ You forget, sir,” said Major Cairo Sinn, ‘that our standards of aristocracy have changed ; accom- plishment, not birth, is the thing that commands our respect to-day. Young Van Oilpan is a remarkable man, sir. He is the man who wrecked P. D. andQ.; he has been divorced twice; he won fifty thousand dollars in one night in Saratoga, and he has an auto- mobile record of fourteen killed and wounded. A member of society? Hoe’s a society leader, sir.” Inferiority. T[HEIR boy's profound dejection when he came back from school led them at once to suspect the worst. ‘‘ Then you are not included in the roll of honor?” they exclaimed, striving to conceal their emotion. “ Alas, no,” faltered the boy, in a quavering voice, “The rules this year provide that an honor pupil must have been inoculated with at least twelve dif- ferent serums, and I have been inoculated with but ten.”” Inwardly, the man and woman cursed the wretched poverty that had brought them this new humilia- Ts ALLOWED TOPASS She; 18 1T PosstBLe THAT SUCH LOVE CAN RET “DARLING, YOU ARE @QUASHING MY NOSE.” comicbooks.com