Life — July 17, 1913 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Sports of the American Girl: Flying Dollars" This satirical illustration depicts wealthy American women literally throwing money into the air—"flying dollars." The cartoon critiques conspicuous consumption and frivolous spending by the leisure class, particularly women with disposable income. The accompanying text humorously explains two concepts: "Microbes" (imaginary beings invented by doctors to scare people into unnecessary medical treatments) and "Proper Celebration" (discussing a new baby, with the dark joke that "progress is only a new combination of atoms"). The overall page satirizes early-20th-century American excess, medical quackery, and upper-class women's perceived wastefulness during an era of significant wealth inequality.