Life, 1905-03-23 · page 5 of 22
Life — March 23, 1905 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical cartoon depicts a Sunday school lesson gone awry. An angelic teacher attempts to instruct six caricatured pupils—identified as prominent figures including Johnny Rockefeller, Tommy Lawson, Henry Rogers, Johnny Gates, and Andy Carnegie—about moral teachings like "Thou Shalt Not Steal." The joke targets wealthy industrialists and robber barons of the Gilded Age, portraying them as incorrigible misbehaviors who cannot be taught ethics. The boys argue that stealing copper cents and playing "the races" (gambling) are normal behavior. The satire suggests these wealthy men's actual practices—theft, embezzlement, and financial manipulation—make them unsuitable pupils for moral instruction, implying their fortunes were built on dishonest practices.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
PRESENT : > Now, little boys, you must all sit quict in your seats and the best scholar will receive anice, large, red apple. Our text is “Thou shalt not this morning st Can any little boy here tell me why stealing is a sin? Come, now, Johnny Rockefeller, stop your fidgeting. You are always such a good boy, Fm surprised at you, Hrexry Rocers: T know. Lire: You may tell the class. Hexry: Because you're likely to get found out. Pirrvoxt: Tf you don't get found out, it isn’t a sin. Life’s Sunday-School Class. Johnuy Rockefeller, Johnny Gates, Tommy Lawson, Hon. Rogers, Little Pierpont Morgan, Andy Carnegie. Rockefeller may tell us what he thinks about it. Lire: Johnny Tommy Lawson (pointing at him): Sneak! Lire: Now, Tommy, you keep quict—if you can, You're always interfering. Why don't you mind your own business ? Tommy Lawson (begining to cry): Well, I guess 1 know some- thing. These fellers tried to get all my copper cents away from me. TI get even with ‘em. Jouxxy Gares: Come off! You're a sorehead. Why didn’t you take your medicine like a two-year-old? You make me dead weary with your squeelin’. Say, teacher, here's de dead truth. He's a side alley. He peeps when you look at him. Hen. Rogers, Johnny Rockefeller and some more of the gang got him down one day and pinched him, and now he’s erying bloody murder. Come off, Tommy. Give us a rest. Tommy Lawso Don’t you believe him, teacher. He's too tough for nice boys like us, any- way. All he does all the time is to play the Lire: Silence in the class! comicbooks.com