Life, 1911-06-08 · page 15 of 44
Life — June 8, 1911 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is satirical commentary on an American newspaper correspondent's coverage of King George V's coronation (1911). The correspondent, "J. Bounder Ballingford," represents the stereotypical arrogant American journalist—inserting himself into major historical events and taking credit for their success. The humor operates on multiple levels: **The correspondent's delusion**: He claims to be "helping" arrange the coronation while British officials like Prime Minister Asquith resent his interference. He boasts of having arranged Kaiser Wilhelm's quarters and even plans to bring newspaper editor William Randolph Hearst's man Parkhurst to conduct the ceremony. **American presumption**: The piece mocks American confidence that they can "uphold American traditions" in England and improve British institutions through intervention. **The cartoon** shows the correspondent lounging while smaller figures (likely representing British officials) labor around him—visualizing his inflated sense of importance. The satire targets American journalistic arrogance and cultural chauvinism during the early 20th century.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
CCORDING to the dispatches re- ceived almost every hour from our London coronation correspondent, J. Bounder Ballingford, the details of the coronation are proceeding with great regularity and speed. We wish to state emphatically that the report that we are dissatisfied with our correspondent’s work in London and are about to recall him, is untrue, and the work of malicious and envious contemporaries. The fact that he has not been able to do as much personal work as we had hoped is due to the fact that he has been so busy with the King arranging the details. We have the utmost confi- dence in his ability to uphold American traditions. We have just received from him the following dispatch: Lonpon, (Special correspondence to Lire) The King means well, but I am dis- appointed in his ability, and, so far I have had to bear the brunt of this whole affair, Asquith rather resents any re- quest for help from him. “I am personally fond of George,” he said to me privately yesterday, “ but, you know, this whole affair is much like a comic opera, and for the same purpose—to keep the people impressed with the solemnity of life. George is a lay figure. We fellows who are doing the real work of the nation have no time for such frivolity. I shall be there, of course, but don’t count on me to do anything. I must keep this government going, in spite of poverty, pageants and persiflag The German Emperor William, who has been sleeping on a cot at the foot of my bed, has been assigned quarters elsewhere. I timated very strongly that I couldn't be disturbed. He kept me awake almost the entire night talk- ing about himself and Theodore Roose- velt, the latter being a subject which is now never mentioned in journalistic circles. He also insisted on showing me a picture he had painted, and read me a poem that he had written. It al- most made me wish I was back conduct- ing the war against Mexico. I have just cabled Parkhurst to come ‘on and crown George. A petition from one hundred prominent bishops representing the Church of England was presented to me this morning, protesting against «“LIF E* England Awaits Great Event Our London Correspondent Busy With Preliminaries of Coronation—All Looks Bright what they are pleased to consider an outrage. The Kings of England, they tell me, have always been crowned by the Head of the Church. This country will wake up some day and learn that it can't go on doing the same thing forever. Parkhurst is just the man. He has had a long experience on the Journal of New York, and can handle a crown with absolute safety. He is coming. Hearst hesitated to let him go at first on account of the millions of readers who would suffer by his absence, but I suggested that he could write the news ahead for a few weeks or so; also that our loss was England’s gain. The King will lean on the arm of J. Pierpont Morgan at the ceremony. The British Cabinet will follow immediately after. Morgan will help me The King grows hourly more nervous. But I have been whiling away the hours by reading to him my last book, “ Beat- ing It Around the World,” and it has braced him up wonderfully. “You Americans are so amusing,” he said to me this morning. “And you have such interesting manners. The press here rather resents my presence, but that is, of course, natural, considering how far behind the times they are. This week the Spectator says: “We can ordinarily afford to laugh at Americans, with their bad taste, their atrocious manners and their absolute disregard for public decency; but the recent exploits of an American corre- spondent of the paper Lire are really beyond all belief. He has, in some extraordinary manner, ingratiated him- self with the King, and seems to be ar- ranging the ceremony of the coronation to suit himself and his advertising pur- poses. Our national attitude towards all Americans, as is well known, is to look “THE EMPEROR WILLIAM KEPT ME AWAKE ALL NIGHT TALKING ABOUT HIMSELP I INTIMATED VERY STRONGLY THAT I COULDN'T BE DISTURBED.”