Life, 1904-09-01 · page 17 of 38
Life — September 1, 1904 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes Rhode Island's economy and society circa early 1900s. The central figure wears a large sign reading "THIS GOAT IS WARDER GUY-GETTER! DON'T BUMP!" — depicting the state itself as a "goat" being paraded before wealthy suitors in automobiles. The accompanying text mocks Rhode Island's primary industry: wealthy heiresses marrying foreign noblemen for titles, while foreigners marry American wealth for money. The joke is that Rhode Island's actual economy depends on this "market" where "thousands of foreign titles are annually bartered for domestic fortunes." The cartoon shows this literally as a traffic jam of vehicles (representing suitors and wealth) circling around the "Rhode Island goat," suggesting the state exists primarily as a marriage-broker's carnival — "the only way" for Rhode Island to achieve prominence. The satire targets the state's apparent lack of legitimate industry or culture, reduced to matchmaking between old European nobility and new American money.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
RI. RIOR to the invention of kerosene, the Baptists were rather poor, which led to their being persecuted in Massachusetts. This persecution be- came at length so fierce that Roger Williams fled to Newport, in spite of the notoriety of the place, and there discovered Rhode Island. The State now began to be mentioned in the columns of the Providence Journal, and sprang almost at once into prominence. Rhode Island consists of rocks, di- versified here and there by rocks, Some of the rocks are natural, some have been made in business, and some have been thrust upon the community by the summer colonists. The religion of Rhode Island is the supralapsarian protective tariff doc- trine. . THE ONLY WAY, Rhode Island is famous throughout the civilized world for its great market, where thousands of foreign titles are annually bartered for domestic for- tunes. Lief the Unlucky was the first nobleman to come to America in search of an heiress, and his relics are still to be seen in Rhode Island. He found no heiress, or, at any rate, none who would have him. Owing to the dense ignorance of the times, he was not aware what he had missed, and ac- cordingly died without ever changing his surname. Bridge may be played in Rhode Island, but there is hardly room for golf. The population of Rhode Island com- prises newly rich, hopelessly rich, smart setters, and a sprinkling of impossible persons. Children are virtually ex- tinct. Suppressed Chapters. AIR Cleopatra was, we're told, an esti- mable lady ; But in her past, one circumstance has been kept rather shady, She was quite poor when she was young,— $0, to escape the work'us, She used to travel,—one-night stands,—with Darnum Daily's Circus. At each performance she'd appear,— (of course, it didn’t harm her), As Serpentina Sinuous, the marvelous Snake Charmer. And that's the way, as you may guess, she came to have a grasp— An expert working knowledge of the habits of the asp. Carolyn Wells, MASK conceals the face; man- ners, the character, comicbooks.com