Life, 1912-01-11 · page 24 of 40
Life — January 11, 1912 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three satirical pieces mocking wealthy industrialists and financial reformers: **"The New Office Boy"** (top cartoon): A joke about J.P. Morgan's absence from his office—suggesting even his office boy has power and importance. **"A Word of Caution to Bankers"**: Sarcastically advises bankers to scrutinize Senator Nelson Aldrich's currency reform proposal. The satire implies Aldrich has historically favored "special interests" over the people, so his sudden concern for fairness seems suspicious. The piece sardonically suggests he may have had a moral conversion—clearly implying he hasn't. **"Happy Andy"**: Mocks Andrew Carnegie's claim that life grows more beautiful with age. The writer expresses mock scandal that such a wealthy man appears genuinely happy, noting most philosophy holds that money brings misery. The satire suggests Carnegie's cheerfulness stems from his obsessive charitable giving—constantly unloading wealth to avoid being "snowed under" by dividends. **"Whoop!"**: A brief dialogue satirizing hollow rhetoric about wealth and morality. All pieces target the hypocrisy and public relations efforts of Gilded Age billionaires.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE NEW OFFICE BOY “15 MR, MORGAN IN?” “NO. BUT WHAT CAN I Do For you?” MAKING UP FOR LOST TIME A Word of Caution to Bankers UST because Mr. Aldrich has al- ways favored the special interests in the past, there is a disposition on the part of many thoughtless bankers to assume that he is doing so in his new currency scheme. We skould advise the bankers to be cautious, however, not only in their own interest, but in fairness to Mr. Aldrich, They should not accept this scheme without carefully examining it. For all they know he may have been born again, may have turned over a new leaf and be now fighting valiantly on the side of the people. Happy Andy T is a scandal that a man so rich as Mr. Carnegie should maintain with so much success a specious appearance of enjoying life. He had a birthday the other day and declared that human life grew more beautiful to him every day. That was before the row at the Peace meeting, but at the time it was apparently a sincere sentiment. It is contrary to most precedents and to maxims of the copy books and the re- flections of the philosophers, all of which concur in the view that super- abundant money weighs heavily on the human heart. No doubt it does, and probably Mr. Carnegie’s cheerfulness may be con- nected with his habit of unloading. Every day or so he fetches up a for- tune and pitches it out for somebody else to struggle with. His facilities for taking this sort of exercise and getting the consequent relief are al- most unrivaled. Nevertheless it must be conceded that he is extra smart. Very few men that have ever lived have shown the equal of his capacity to keep himself from being snowed under by dividends. He is forever struggling out from under his accumu- lations and getting on top of his pile. Seventy-six he was the other day, and perfectly cheerful about it.. That elo- quent but discouraged preacher who declared that all things are vanity, should have lived to inspect the Laird of Skibo. He may be Vanity, but cer- tainly he seems to like it. Whoop! RATOR: And what, my friends, shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Voice: He will have a grand time while it lasts. PREMATURE OLD AGE