Life, 1904-09-22 · page 8 of 20
Life — September 22, 1904 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the **Rockefeller family's wealth and business practices**. The two portraits depict "Willing Rockseller" (a caricature of a Rockefeller) and "John D. Rockeseller," identified as someone who "helped trim the fur for $200,000.00" of stolen goods. The accompanying text describes an elaborate scheme involving adulterated brass sold as gold—a metaphor for Rockefeller's Standard Oil monopoly practices. The narrative mocks how the family conducted shady financial dealings and bribery ("Your Foster-Uncle Dudley" facilitated the split). The satire attacks both the Rockefellers' **monopolistic business tactics** and their willingness to substitute inferior products while maintaining appearances of legitimacy—a common Progressive-era criticism of robber barons. The "Community of Interest" mentioned reflects actual corporate consolidation strategies used to disguise monopolistic control.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIFE: mysterious operation is made more dense than ever, I will resume. The Gold, for the purchase of Brass to be adulterated to the appearance of Gold, and which I intended should look as good as Gold to the public, having been obtained, the Brass was accordingly purchased. And was accordingly adulterated ; and an iron-clad but solid gold agreement as to a division of the spoils was obtained by Your Foster-Uncle Dudley. AND ADULTERATED BRASS WAS SOLD just as IF IT REALLY WERE AS good AS a GOLD BRICK. Yes, the Dear Public bought it—hundreds and hundreds of millions of it, But now comes the grisly part of my story of Adulterated. Weep with me, as you try, though ever so feebly, to imagine my horror, when I learned that this band of freebooters and land-pirates, instéad of using Go/d to adulterate my Brass, had actually used Brass ! l immediately washed my hands of the reeking swindle, but, obeying my natural instincts, I promptly called for a division of the spoils. I was tendered a check for one- WILLING ROCKSELLER THE BUZZ-SAW OF THE “STANDHARD ALL" MILL. (1 FOOLISHLY MON. ASYED WITH 11. —The Author.) diately fell to the beauty of the plot. They agreed to burglarize all of the banks necessary, in order to secure the Gold with which to buy up the Brass of the country. Here I must depart a brief space from the story, that I may explain how the 6axé game is worked. For I mustn't tell all I know at once—the idea being to make a short story as long as possible. The said game is very simple and involved. “A.” sneaks around to the rear of the bank at two a. M., climbs in a window, sandbags the watchman, blows open the safe, and removes the gold. . He then hands it out of the window to “ B.,"’ who in turn deliversit to *C.," at an opportune moment when the latter is not looking. Later, “ A."’ and “B,” receive each a present from ¢ equalling one-third the total amount acquired by the scheme, Still later, the divided shares are reunited, and the fund created is called “A Community of Interest "—from a soul 0, ROCKSELLER, regard for the community in which the game is worked. Fis saame-qorcumany. wu. txieRn-Teue uncron §joopsoyoon00— Now that the inner working of this always more or less MY SHARE OF THE SWAG. comicbooks.com