Life, 1916-07-20 · page 11 of 44
Life — July 20, 1916 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes self-centered materialism through a poem by Charlotte Becker titled "The Egotist." The illustration shows a well-dressed man relaxing by a rural stream while his horse waits nearby, captioned "Living Beyond His Income." The satire targets wealthy individuals who maintain expensive lifestyles despite financial limitations. The poem expresses the speaker's desire to escape mortality through sensory pleasures—rain, warmth, marble—suggesting how the egotist seeks comfort and immortality through material indulgence rather than meaningful living. The juxtaposition of the leisured gentleman with the caption "Living Beyond His Income" directly mocks this contradiction: appearing prosperous while financially unsustainable. This reflects early 20th-century American concerns about conspicuous consumption and economic excess among the upper classes.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
1E, EGOTIST From an Old Sarcophagus OMETIMES I feel a quiver through my veins, More close, and my beseeching voice disdains. As if, just for a space, the darkness broke Within this sealéd stone my hair is bright, Its world-long watch, and, trembling, awoke And I as fair as those white garlands flung To hear once more the fall of tender rains, Above my brow when love and time were young. Breathe warm, wide air, and weave narcissus chains Years touch me not, yet should that kiss of light For some dear marble—then, relentlessly, For which I grieve be mine, its dower must, Death spreads his pall of sleep to cover me At coming, change my lifeless life to dust! Charlotte Becker, LIVING BEYOND HIS INCOME comicbooks.com -