Life, 1903-11-26 · page 8 of 20
Life — November 26, 1903 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features "Heart to Heart Talks" by Andrew Carnegie, the wealthy Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. The main illustration shows Carnegie holding architectural plans for a library (labeled "Plan for LIBRARY No. 1,464,537-A"), standing before a pedestal displaying his bust. The satire targets Carnegie's famous library-building campaign: he funded over 2,500 public libraries across America and Britain. The cartoon mocks the scale of this effort through the absurdly high library number, suggesting mass production rather than genuine philanthropy. Carnegie's text discusses "graft" and making money, touching on his rags-to-riches narrative. The smaller cartoon below shows fish discussing disappearing fish—likely satirizing Carnegie's tendency to offer moralistic advice despite questionable business practices during the Gilded Age.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Heart to Heart Talks. By Anprew Carvecte. D™ BOYS AND GIRLS: It gives me great 7 pleasure to come before you this week and express myself freely about the great work I am doing. I want you to know just how I have done this work, and just how you may in time become like me, although you may not all have as much money as I have, because the graft is not always the same, Does any little boy or girl know what a graft is? Then I must tell you. It is merely a way of making money, which you should all cultivate as early as possible, because only in this manner can you become really great. There are, of course, grafts and grafts. Mine w: Scotch graft. Not the dialect kind, you kuow, but the good old-fashioned get-there graft. Before I say anything about the grand work Iam doing, however, I want to talk about myself; not that I care todo this as a regular thing, you know, because I have found out that it is always better to maké others talk about me; but I am going to art from my rule this time for your because I want you to see the inside workings. I see by your smiles, as I say that, that you think it is a joke, but I assure you it isn’t; for, being a Scotchman, I don’t even know a joke when I see it, which is a splendid thing; because if I did, I might not have the idea of my own im- portance that I do have, and without this, of course, I would not be nearly so contented as lam. Now I suppose, as you look at me, you wonder how a little man like me could have done such a lot, and I sometimes wonder at this myself, because I really * You must first be sure of getting enough money.” haven't gained so much since I started out as it seems; and I suppose I am as hopelessly vulgar, and have as bad manners, and as deep a sense of ostentation as I ever had, only I don’t think I have, you know, and this is the important thing, and one that you must take to your own hearts, because it is what you think Al frees and shepely chorus Girls you are that really counts. LET There cannot be too many. WA, Then again, I have so much now There are a few old catfish whol) that people are more interested in Quite disapprove of legs, ‘tis eke; | getting me to subscribe than they ut then —they haven't any. } are in telling me my shortcomings; = which shows you, better than any- thing Ican say, the great power of love, when there is money in sight. What I want to impress upon your minds, however, is that to succeed you must first be sure of getting enough money, so that when you be- come a public benefactor and get yourself advertised, you will still have enough left to keep the wolf from the door. If, when I had started out and had my first million, I had begun to spend money on others foolishly, the habit might have grown on me, so that to-day I would be walking the streets with only a few hundred thousands in my pockets. At that time, however, I only built comicbooks.com