Life, 1911-08-24 · page 15 of 40
Life — August 24, 1911 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page shows a satirical cartoon about gift-giving and speculative value. Two figures debate the merits of giving a fifty-cent saucer as a wedding gift, framed as having potential worth of two hundred dollars. The satire targets upper-class self-deception: one character justifies a cheap gift by emphasizing its *possible* future value and the emotional pleasure of *seeming* generous, while dismissing the actual cost. The other character points out this is mere rationalization—the giver gets "emotions" while the recipient gets a worthless object. The cartoon mocks the tendency of wealthy people to reframe stingy behavior as refined philosophy, substituting sentimental language about "knowledge" and "generosity" for actual material generosity. The title's reference to a delayed bridegroom suggests this inadequate gift is particularly insulting at a wedding.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Te ANswoe bilities of fiscal increase, and all its additional chances of being an artistic treasure rescued from the ashman.” “You haven't any present profit. You'll be out ten cents.” “That's only a surface appearance. You have no penetra- tion.” “But T get the saucer, with possi you discovered it.” ut T don't sce that you get anything.” “ Of course I do—entertainment, emotions, and the chance to bestow a gift which has fifty dollars of speculative value and possibilities of much more, on a friend who also has pos- pilities of value. If I sold the thing for fifty dollars it would be cither more than it was worth of less than it was worth, but if I pive it to you and it turns out good I have made a lities of val source of prid ens out bad I shall have and even that is some pleasure two hundred dollar poor like me; and if it you a fifty ¢ All th the v of ten cents, the rest of See what already a fifty ated cost to being duc to your train ns, they have done for me—bestowed upon n coll jon of generosity, lar emotion behind it. Great is knowledge, which thing out of nothing, and seems to accept while ly confers.” “But all you'll get will be some emotions “That's all you'll get. You'll have an emotion over the possibilities of the saucer if it turns out to be worth two hun- dred dollars; you'll have the emotion of owning it, and if you th the possibility of a two comicbooks.com