Life, 1914-07-30 · page 30 of 40
Life — July 30, 1914 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains satirical commentary on American wealth and corruption circa early 1900s. **Main cartoon (top):** A wealthy traveler justifies frequent foreign trips by claiming "higher golden idealism" and service to international bankers. The satire targets wealthy Americans who abandon their country while claiming patriotism, often while benefiting from financial scandals. He cynically tells his female companion she can join him once "railroad scandals" and "lootings by American multimillionaires" have sufficiently impoverished her—dark humor about rampant corporate corruption. **"Success" cartoon (bottom):** A doctor congratulates a feverish patient, explaining the fever indicates *multiple* undiscovered diseases. This satirizes medical overdiagnosis and quackery, mocking physicians who treat symptoms rather than root causes or who profit from expanding disease definitions. Both pieces critique turn-of-century American society: unchecked wealthy elites fleeing accountability and dubious professional practices exploiting the public. The "five-dollar gold piece" reference appears to be metaphorical currency symbolizing new wealth.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Publisher: STORY TO AMUSE TH CHEER THE WOMAN WHO 1. NESS MAN TO CON apparently pay something to have me come, but that’s only a bluff. In the end our own people always pay for it.” “What are you going over for this time—business or pleasure?” “Business, I always travel on busi- ness, I shall probably visit the Bank of England a few days, renewing my acquaintance with some English cousins—sovereign chaps, I assure you—and then I may wander over to Germany. They are always glad to see me in dear old Germany.” The second five-dollar gold piece had only recently been born. Having passed all of his short life in Wash- MY DEAR YOUNG LADY, WHAT WE NEED IS NOT SO MUCH A IRED BUSINESS MAN AS ONE THAT WILL THE TIRED BUSI- END WITH I believe in leading the life of the higher golden idealism. It's a mistake to help out your own country. Your aims should be more comprehensive. You should be willing to serve any old nation, And so when the bankers of other countries express a desire to see me, and I can be of any service to them, why, I go abroad.” “And leave me here?” The traveler glistened with optimism. “Don't worry,” he said. “A few more railroad scandals, a few more lootings by American multimillionaires, and you may join me at any moment. Hope on, hope ever, brother!” Success ATIENT (feebly): Say, doctor, that new scrum treatment of yours has given me an extraordinarily high fever. Doctor: My hearty congratulations! “For what?” “Why, my dear sir, that fever indi- cates the presence of several other diseases which we didn't even suspect!” ington, he naturally knew nothing of ! } cconomics, the past, or what is hap- ‘ pening elsewhere in the world, “T don’t quite sce the object of your going abroad,” he said, “if our folks are to pay for your expenses in the end, merely because other people want you over there. I’m reasonably patri- otic, no matter if I have spent my life in Washington, and I should really like to know the object of this sort of thing.” “Well, my dear fellow, I will ex- pl There was a time when I might have been as narrowly patriotic as you, but I’ve gotten all over that. Now, “A NICE POLICE We've coT! MY TREASURER ABSCONDS WITH ONE HUN- DRED THOUSAND DOLLARS AND MY WIFE— AND THE POLICE BRING BACK MY WIFE”