Life — August 7, 1919 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Rate's Progress" 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.