Life, 1914-06-18 · page 17 of 44
Life — June 18, 1914 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page satirizes the moral panic over the tango dance craze of the early 1900s. The top cartoon parodies Christian Science and Egyptian pharaohs, mocking those who viewed the tango as a serious moral threat. The mock-Egyptian decree (signed "Rhampsinit," an ancient pharaoh) humorously equates dancing the tango with death, suggesting the hysteria was absurdly overwrought. The bottom cartoon jokes about wealth and social behavior: a newly rich man (Davis) who inherited millions is still inconsiderate—now occupying empty train seats instead of sitting in them properly. The satire targets both the tango-panic moralizers and shallow wealthy behavior. Together, the page mocks both the era's prudish dance criticism and the pretensions of the nouveau riche, using exaggeration and anachronism for comedic effect.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE SOLDIERS” The “Lurch of the Lotos”, the “Crocodile Curve”, And others to cite which we haven't the nerve, Enough that this dance hath offended our eye, And he who essays it hereafter shall die, Be he prince, be he pauper, a swell or a slave. Ye shall learn thus, O people, once more to behave! So beware, O ye ball-givers! Not all your millions Shall save you if tangos corrupt your cotil- lions! Though bloodshed afar from our royal desire is, He who tries them becomes, in the act, an Osiris,* Were he bone of our bone. Aye! We swear it by Horus, Isis, Nephthys, and all the small -gods in the chorus! Wherefore stop it this minute If you'd still remain in it! Signed, sealed, and delivered this day, by Rhampsinit. * SBRIINE POOH: Literally, “the Dance of the Gods”. Prac- tically identical, if we may judge from the sculp- tures, with the modern tango. ‘Sop a Anglice, “a dead one”, Even Worse! ROST: Davis has inherited millions lately. Snow: Then he's no longer an end-seat hog. Frost: No, now he’s the empty-back-seat kind. “PARDON ME! IS ANYBODY IN?” comicbooks.com