Life, 1907-11-21 · page 21 of 32
Life — November 21, 1907 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes American progress and social manners circa 1907. The main article "Progress" argues that Americans boast material advancement (coal pollution, Fifth Avenue palaces) while ignoring moral refinement. The satire hinges on two quotes from transportation industry magnates: twenty years prior, one infamously declared "The public be damned"; now another says "The dividends are in the straps" (referring to subway handholds). The author claims this linguistic softening proves we've achieved civilized politeness alongside material progress—though the sarcasm is heavy: softening language for profit hardly represents genuine moral improvement. The lower illustration mocks wealthy women's spending habits via a bird with money for plumage—"A hint to our spendthrift ladies." The bridge-player joke reinforces upper-class frivolity. Together, the content suggests American "progress" remains superficial: replacing crude insults with euphemisms, and material greed with genteel manners, changes nothing fundamental.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
apyeht 1007, by Lara Petar (Does tie ER by es Peston AN ANTIQUE SOFA HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED ey ‘ANDID Americans have felt compelled, while boasting our progress, to do so ~~ with a mental reservation, whereby they con- ‘\! fessed, to themselves, that it was, after all, mostly material, and amounted to nothing much beyond the casting of more coal-soot into the air and the building of new palaces on Fifth Avenue. But now there comes a testimony to say that we have not neglected the better part, that we have been taking on, this while, a polish of manner, suavitas in modo, ~~ such as is the flower of civilization, even as virtue ™— is the root. Twenty years ago a great personage in the transporta- tion line, called upon to enunciate a changeless truth, said: “The public be damned.” In the present year of grace, another personage, not less great, and likewise in the trans- portation line, says: “The dividends are in the straps.” Thus far have we come in two decades. And it is far,indeed. When princes, potentates and powers in the world of finance come to think it worth their while to choose their words, and soften them, we have come far. ' Ramsey Benson. In Gotham Ce entrance and exit. In at one jerk, out at another. A MINT TO OUR SPENDTHRIFT LADIES RS. HATTERSON: Is Mrs. Witherby a good bridge player ? Mrs. Catrerson: The best one in our church. comicbooks.com