Life, 1910-03-31 · page 27 of 46
Life — March 31, 1910 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical page from *Life* magazine parodies nursery rhymes to mock Wall Street speculation and financial manipulation during what appears to be the early 1900s. **Key figures referenced:** - "Father Morgan" (J.P. Morgan) attempted to stabilize markets through newspaper propaganda - "Gary" (likely Judge Elbert Gary of U.S. Steel) whose stock declined - "Jim Hill" (railroad magnate James J. Hill) who cornered Northern Pacific stock **The satire's point:** Politicians and financiers like Morgan, Gary, and Hill manipulated markets through schemes and insider trading, causing ordinary investors to lose money. The nursery-rhyme format mocks their supposedly "wise" strategies as childish and reckless. **Bottom panel:** "When Women Rule the Wave" satirizes women's demands for equal treatment—the captain dismisses a sinking ship report while ordering tea service, suggesting men in power ignore serious problems while prioritizing trivial concerns.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Mother Goose ¥, in Wall Street ICKERY-dickery-dock, ITTLE J. R. K. managed a corner The brokers ran up the stoi % \ % In Hocking C. and I But some son-of-a-gun Then he went dumb, with his health Unloaded at one, on the bum, Hickery-dickery-dock And broke all the smaller fry. HERE was a man in Wall Street, “BAA, baa, Wall Street, And he was wondrous wise, Have you any wool?’? le went into a broker shop “Yes, kind sir, And bought American Ice; Three lambs’ full. And when his broker sold him out, One for the trickster He ran, with might and maip And one for his dame And bought more in another shop, And one for the broker And then went broke again. Who gets wise to his game."’ (Cue Gary, quite contrary, How docs your Steel stock go? Not up to par but down so far It makes our losses grow. LD Father Morgan had a newspaper organ To put the bears on the run LD Jim Hill was a merry old pill, But the scheme wouldn't go, And a merry old pill was he. Because it ain't so He cailed for his stocks till he got his fill Whatever we read in the Sun. The day he cornered N. P. WHEN WOMEN RULE THE WAVE “CAPTAIN, T HAVE TO REPORT THAT THE SHIP IS SINKING RAPIDL “1 WISH TO GOODNESS, GERTIE, YOU WOULDN'T BOTHER ME SO OFTEN. HOWEVER, YOU MAY CUT HER STAYS, WHICH WILL PROBABLY RELIEVE HER, AND HAVE THE STEWARDESS SERVE TEA AT ONCE IN THE PINK ROOM,”* comicbooks.com