Life, 1914-04-02 · page 23 of 68
Life — April 2, 1914 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three brief satirical pieces about early 20th-century social behavior: **"Keeping Them Down"** mocks the class dynamics of tipping. A guest asks his host how much to tip the butler; the host suggests fifty dollars only because the butler ignored him—satirizing the absurd logic where poor service justifies minimal compensation. **"Another Nature Fake"** references the contemporary debate over nature writer John Burroughs's accusations that other naturalists fabricated or exaggerated animal observations. The poem suggests it's harmless to see geese as swans (romanticizing reality) rather than the reverse, mocking pedantic insistence on literal accuracy. **The final aphorism** cynically reduces business success to financial manipulation—"opening the other fellow's cash drawer" means taking their money, reflecting Gilded Age anxieties about ruthless capitalism and moral decline. The overhead illustration depicts an urban street scene with numerous figures during a rainstorm, providing visual context for everyday social interactions the text satirizes.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
AEAIL SHOWERS “T OOK here, Fred, I think I know you well enough to ask you how much I ought to tip that butler of yours!” “Surely, old chap; he hasn’t been very nice to you, has he?” “Just barely noticed me.” “Then I should treat him accordingly. I wouldn't give him more than fifty dollars.” . “ Another Nature Fake” 'T might be nature faking, but as I travel on, I'd like the kindly vision, to see the geese as swan; It seems not one whit wiser, and really what's the use? To go about insisting that some swan is a goose. HE modern key to success seems to be the one that opens the other fellow’s cash drawer. comicbooks.com >