Life, 1917-08-16 · page 13 of 40
Life — August 16, 1917 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a satirical conversation about society's entertainment value. The illustration shows an ornate church or cathedral interior filled with elegantly dressed people—depicting high society. The dialogue mocks wealthy society members who find themselves boring. One speaker claims society provides "amusement and pleasure," but another counters that it's actually "rather a bore." The conversation concludes that society is only entertaining to *outsiders*—the poor and working classes who find amusement in "watching us and laughing at our little ways." The satire targets the self-awareness of the idle rich: they recognize their own social world lacks genuine substance or entertainment value, existing primarily as an object of fascination (and mockery) for those outside their privileged circle.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
AND SON 253 are a large body; fairly well satisfied workmen are an- other large body. People who are fairly well satisfied have known ates. vastly cls, with life as the: it in the United s outnumber the re our social and polit So, we believe, it ha France. But in what case things will be in Europe when the war is over, and what new plans for the regulation of hfe will issue out of the immense distress and destruction the war has brought, only a seventh son can tell. Neither is it safe to predict how matters will go with us Amer- icans. Already one m rich people discuss the po ty of loss of fortunes—discuss it, as a rule, philosophic: Yet the I. W. W.'s and pro- man Socialists and Pacifists and that sort, in Congress and out of it, never lose the chance to call it the rich men’s war, brought on in the interests of “ business.” system, heen in A Conversation ‘NY/HAT are the main objects of society?” “Entertainment, — amusement and pleasure.” “Are you in society? “And you find it entertaining and amusing?” “Well, not exactly. To tell the truth, I find it all rather a bore.” “And do most society folks feel the same?” “Tam afraid so. In fact, about all of them do, except a few young men and débutantes; and even these find their pleasure spoiled by the fear that someone else may surpass them in a social wa “To whom, then, is society entertaining and amusing?” “On consideration, I think it must be to outsiders. They seem to find great delight in watching us and laughing at our little ways.”