Life, 1912-10-03 · page 22 of 56
Life — October 3, 1912 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Cartoon (Top):** "Mr. and Mrs. Newrich Make the Most of Their Butler's Day Out" satirizes newly wealthy people (the "Newrich") attempting to serve themselves. The humor lies in their incompetence at domestic tasks—they're so accustomed to having servants that they can't function without one, even for a single day. This mocks the pretensions and helplessness of the nouveau riche. **Text/Advertisement (Center):** A parody advertisement for "Life's Vibration Parlors" featuring a fictional "Swami Baa Baa." It ridicules the early 1900s craze for spiritualism, psychic powers, and mystical self-improvement. The absurd claims—controlling conductors, manipulating bank presidents through "vibration"—satirize gullible wealthy people chasing pseudoscientific fads. **Bottom Cartoon:** "The Prehistoric Chorus Lady" appears to mock theatrical performers, likely critiquing a chorus girl's contradictory claim to respectability while refusing to wear period-appropriate costumes (tights). Together, the page satirizes wealthy American social pretension and susceptibility to fraudulent trends.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
MR, AND MRS, NEWRICH MAKE THE MOST OF THEIR BUTLER'S DAY OUT Yogi would have dared such a conception. Swami Baa Baa is admitted to be the greatest psychic power the world has ever seen. He is in reality a psychic pragmatist; than whom, as Henry James would say, there can be none hig “My wife no longer bores me,” writes an enthusiastic patron. “ When she begins I go into the silence, not being conscious of anything she says; but my subliminal self, who has taken a course in psychic stenography, thing down, und I can appear to her to be i her thought at any point in the game. touch with I also went into my bank this morning, slapped the president on the back, and got him to lend me ten thousand, by vibrating beforehand according to your one hundred dollar formula. I am king of the universe, and I leap from tatvic plane to tatvic plane without an effort. Obeisance to Swami Baa Baa. He is the only reality in America. Baa Baa foreve By taking one lesson from the Swami you can control a New York conductor, can get your change from a de- partment store in a jiffy, can learn how to dance the grizzly bear, sit up all night and drink highballs and actually be more righteous for it. Don’t hesitate. If you are not in complete harmony with everything you are conscious of, drop in and get in tune with the universe. Prices within the reach of all. Life's Vibration Parlors. { ea i SSABENEY oe The Prehistoric Chorus Lady; six, 'o UAVE YoU UNDER- STAND I'M A PERFECT LADY, I WON'T WEAR TIGHTS! comicbooiede