Life — April 13, 1905 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Life's Sunday-School Class" This satirical cartoon mocks wealthy industrialists masquerading as moral educators. The five caricatured figures seated—identified as Mamie Baker Eddy, Johnnie Junior Rockefeller, Russie Sage, and Hetty Green—represent prominent wealthy Americans of the Gilded Age. The satire centers on their hypocrisy: "Life" (personified, teaching) attempts to instruct these men about morality and the Biblical commandment "Thou shalt not covet," while the figures represent exactly the kind of ruthless wealth-accumulation that violates such principles. The joke is that these notorious robber barons and their associates are the last people qualified to learn—or teach—ethical behavior, making the "Sunday-school" framing deeply ironic.