Life, 1919-08-07 · page 7 of 44
Life — August 7, 1919 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece tracks a man's social and financial ascent through cigarette smoking, using a progressive narrative structure: **The progression:** - **One cent/word**: Starting broke, he smokes cheap cigars - **Three cents/word**: Six months later, he's upgraded to cigarette cases and matches - **Twenty-five cents/word**: Two years later, he's gained "conscientiousness of position and supreme ease of manner" The satire mocks how minor status symbols—particularly cigarettes and their accessories—signal and supposedly confer social respectability and financial success. The illustration of a well-dressed man fishing represents the final stage: leisure and gentility. The joke suggests that smokers delude themselves that tobacco consumption reflects or creates genuine social elevation, when it merely represents conspicuous consumption and superficial pretense.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
al cS h THE PIED PIPER The Rate’s Progress HEN he started—One cent a word: “He lit a ciza- rette.” s later—Three cents a word omate cigarette-case, he extracted one of the slender wh glinders and applied a match to it. The curling smoke mounted like incense at the altar of some pagan goddess.” Two years later—Twenty-five cents a word: “With a gesture that embodied consciousness of position and su- “ Taking out his preme ease of manner, he poised the cigarette hetweer a fraction of a second he held it to his lips, as one pauses before a kiss to slim fingers. before putting take the fullest pl of the match brought his features in! are in the antic Then the spurt harp relief for an instant, to be veiled the next second hy the misty exhala- tion of that first perfect puff.” When he finally arrived—One dollar a word: * He cigarette.” THE GENTLE ART OF ANGLING comicbooks.com