Life, 1913-06-05 · page 19 of 52
Life — June 5, 1913 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the excess and absurdity of luxury ocean liner travel in the early 20th century. The cartoon at top (by Rigaud, captioned in French referencing French royalty) establishes a tone of aristocratic pretension. The accompanying text parodies a ship's daily log, escalating weekly activities to ridiculous extremes: automobile races on decks, baseball in cargo holds, fox hunts across the ship, and a locomotive race that kills five men—all treated as routine entertainment. The final paragraph's proposal for a future ship large enough to transport Europe's entire population to America, complete with a lake for yacht races, is absurdist hyperbole mocking both maritime engineering ambitions and wealthy travelers' endless demand for novelty. The satire targets the nouveau-riche mentality of gilded-age passengers treating ocean liners as floating pleasure palaces, where entertainment and spectacle matter more than the ship's actual function or safety.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
MAJESFE LE KOI, MONSEIGNEUR LE GOUVERNANTE DE DAUPHIN, N eT FAMILLE MADAME ROYALE DE MAINTENON, GRANDE (Par Rigaud) Life On the Ocean Wave HURSDAY: We sailed from New York with five bands playing on each deck. In the afternoon there was an automobile race on the promenade. Frivay: Two baseball games and a tennis match on the boat deck, with golf on the hurricane deck and a modified Marathon in the after-hold. Saturpay: Spent the morning motoring on the prom- enade. Three attractions playing matinee and evening, but they were all too crowded for comfort. Main deck, Verdi's opera, “La Traviat Second cabin, George Cohan’s mu- sical comedy, “We Should Worry.” And “Nora, the Beautiful Cloak Model,” in the steerage. Sunpay: Prejudice of passengers to Sunday baseball Prevented championship game in the forward-hold, but the teams did little practise work in the morning. In the even- ing there was a grand sacred concert in the Opera House; many prominent people were present. Moxpay: Locomotive race on the berth deck. Course, twenty miles and return, which is almost half the length of the ship. One locomotive went overboard, drowning five men. Fine sport, Tvespay: First and second cabin passengers all riding to the hounds. The fox made a little trouble by getting mixed up with the port turbine, and coming out. with- out any hair. Nevertheless, he was none the worse, and he led the hunters a lively chase over the main deck, up the Linnacle and through the officers’ quarters. Wepnesvay: The bow of the ship has been in Hamburg for three days, but such was the interest of the passengers in the entertainment that they didn’t discover it until this morning. This boat is far too small for modern purposes. Next year, though, the company promises a vessel big enough to move the entire population of rope to Amer- ica in, with a lake large enough for an international yacht race. G. S. Phesay. comicbooks.com