Life, 1910-08-04 · page 29 of 44
Life — August 4, 1910 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes New York's economic inequality and moral bankruptcy during a prosperous period (likely early 1900s). The mock "sale" advertises human beings and city institutions as bargain merchandise: millionaires, society women, children, reporters, hack-writers, shop girls, and "white slaves" are all listed with contemptuous price reductions. The satire attacks: - **Exploitation of labor**: shop girls working without pay or rest - **Human trafficking**: explicit reference to "white slaves" - **Journalism's decline**: reporters and hack-writers treated as disposable commodities - **Class indifference**: the wealthy have abandoned the city, leaving the poor to be "marked down" The accompanying cartoon (lower right) jokes about a struggling author building a mansion from rejected manuscripts—mocking both literary pretension and get-rich-quick fantasies. The overall message: in gilded-age New York, everything—including human dignity—has become a commodity for sale.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
MEMORIES Midsummer Bargains REAT reduction in New York. Nothing like it ever known before. Millionaires are way off. Splendid values offered in com- cople. te our white sale, thing like the quantities of pale faces have been of- in any age or clime. Sold singly or in job lots. st mothers marked down to almost nothing ccify when sending your order whether with or t babies.) eral carloads of children, going cheaper than dirt. m away for almost nothing. ve just taken the cream off New York, and offer nee at extraordinary figures—part or in whole. ne early and avoid the rush, lave a skyscraper sent kome on approval. We pay all reains in reporters. Never before have reporters been » cheap, Hardly worth the trouble of shipping. kk over our hack-writers’ bargain counter. (These are s who couldn't afford to leave town for summer.) a few roof gardens before they spoil on our hands. hing you want in the way of humanity. Shop girls for ere pittance. They stand all day without hitching. erks for the mere asking. Very good valucs in despondent Wall Street brokers. (Have been on our shelves since last winter.) All kinds of blondes and brunettes. A few white slaves left over from the last sale. “WE MUST BE A VERY CESSFUL AUTHOR, JUDGING FROM THE LARGE HOUSE HE 1S NUTLDIN “NoT A mit. scripts "* HE 1S CONSTRUCTING IT FROM REJECTED MANU- comicbooks.com