Life — December 18, 1919 — page 25: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon depicts a funeral scene mocking the social ambitions of wealthy wives. The setup presents a dark joke: a man named Wimbleton spent his life accumulating wealth to retire comfortably, but "lost" his ease not through financial ruin but because his wife used their money to enter high society. The cartoon satirizes early 20th-century social climbing—specifically how newly wealthy families pursued membership in exclusive social circles, which involved constant entertaining, formal events, and social obligations (visible in the background gathering). The joke suggests that a wife's social ambitions proved more exhausting and demanding than financial struggle itself. This reflects period anxieties about conspicuous consumption and the social pressures facing the nouveau riche.