Life, 1917-01-18 · page 17 of 40
Life — January 18, 1917 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Main Cartoon** depicts a well-dressed couple contemplating a riverside park now marred by industrial development—factory smokestacks, an abattoir (slaughterhouse), garbage dump, and coal pocket visible in the background. A "No Trespassing" sign for "Riverside Park" blocks their stroll. **The Satire**: The cartoon mocks railroad companies' industrialization of formerly pleasant public spaces. The couple's dialogue—"where shall we stroll?"—sarcastically questions whether they can enjoy the park when it's been converted to industrial uses. The caption "Improving Riverside, as the Railroad Would Have It" is ironic: the railroad claims improvement, but actually destroys amenity. **The Point**: Critiques unchecked corporate development prioritizing profit over public welfare and urban quality of life—a Progressive-era concern about monopolies and industrial expansion overwhelming cities. **The Articles** below discuss wealth distribution (Boldt, Schwab fortunes) and Austrian fate under German expansion, unrelated to the cartoon.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
AR ERED PARK C4 NO TRESPASSING fe ProreRTY nyc ENTRAL IMPROVING RIVERSIDE, AS THE RAILROAD WOULD HAVE IT “WHERE SHALL WE STROLL, Convenient Fortunes 'HE papers first accorded to the late Mr. Boldt a fortune of twenty or thirty millions, but on further infor- mation have cut it down to twelve or fifteen million, which goes to the de- cedent’s two children. Five or six millions make a con- venient enough fortune, producing two or three hundred thousand dollars in- come. Mr. Charley Schwab was quoted the other day as saying that twelve thou- sand a year would satisfy all the needs of any reasonable man. But Mr. Schwab omitted to define what is a need and what is a reasonable man, so his declaration does not get one along MY DEAR—TO THE ABATTOIR, THE GARBAGE DUMP, S$ TANK?” far. It is many years since twelve thousand \ satisfied Charley's — needs. Perhaps he is not reasonable. Really rich people who have long had habits of expenditure doubtless know just about what a six-million fortune means and what you can do on its income; what houses you ought to have; how much of a yacht, if any; how many people you can pay wages to, and how much a year you can afford to give away. The main reason it seems a venient” fortune is that an active man, especially with a family to help him, wouldn't have to devote too much of his time and strength to spending its income. He could go anywhere his wife would let him, and support a “con- THE COAL POCKET large family on a large scale, and yet not be chained down to the business of distributing money like the people who are really big rich. For anyone can see that the huge fortunes are horribly intrusive, and crowd in on one’s personality so that he hardly knows whether he is a cash- register or a check stub, Which must be exasperating, to be sure! Poor Austrians! HE future Prussify Empire is to consist of Germans, Austrians and Turks. The Turks are sinners, and deserve their fate, but one’s heart bleeds for the Austrians! comicbooks.com