Judge, 1916-08-26 · page 19 of 28
Judge — August 26, 1916 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily an **advertisement**, not a cartoon or satire. It promotes a 20-volume encyclopedic set titled "Famous Characters of History." The page uses a romanticized opening section about historical women (Cleopatra and Mary Queen of Scots) to market the books. The text emphasizes dramatic narratives—describing these figures as embodying contradictions of "sublime strength" and "weakness," passion and pride—to appeal to readers seeking dramatic historical narratives "stranger than fiction." The advertisement lists 20 famous historical figures (Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, etc.) and promotes the set as offering 5,250 pages with illustrations. It frames history as entertainment, claiming these true stories rival romantic fiction in their depths of "folly and heroism." **The appeal is clear**: presenting dry historical facts as gripping drama to justify the $1.00 price (marked down from higher cost, purchaser must act promptly). This is straightforward early 20th-century direct-mail marketing dressed in flowery literary language.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
oF SPA eR NS ot was never so strikingly shown as in the lives of Cleopatra and Mary | Queen of Scots. Heiresses of a kingly line, of rare mental accomplish- ments, unequalled beauty, and with all the irresistible allurements of their sex; sublime in their strength, pitiful in their weakness; they mingled in their characters the most irreconcilable contrasts—paltry and dissolute passions with magnificent spirit and royal pride, leness and falsehood with tenderness and truth—all that we most de- plore with what we most admire. Each quaffed deep of the cup of life, of its joys and agonies. Each paid the price in the coinage of the wages of sin. < fe) < Is Z Be, EW °C mo") 72 Bc) K aes WN a. a Where in the pages of the great masters of romantic fiction do we find stories that, in depths of folly and heights of heroism, can compare with the true stories of these tragic lives, that are told as never before in the 20 volumes of this beautiful new edition of S Famous Characters of History STRANGER THAN FICTION GREAT HISTORICAL EVENTS which were the turning points in the careers of these famous character whose effects were far reaching in shaping the course of civilization, are c volumes: Decisive Battles which wiped out emp tured with all the strong dramatic interest wh the Battle of -\rbela, which No set of books—no matter how costly—was ever write with this work for entertainment and instructi supreme merit of being true. public demands edition after edition--that no home or school libra ered complete without these wonderful books? These twenty volumes throw wide open to us the doors of the ¢ earth. We sce them as real men and women, not as demigods. Monarchs, statesmen, writers, soldiers and fair women of royal blood ma in bewildering procession before our eyes. We catch glimpses of the rich in- ! terfore of lanetous palaces where, io an atmosphere redolent of perfume and tion of the Spanish Armada, w hich made England un blandishment, queens and warriors played deep with hearts, and great crimes ; Pultowa, which marked the rise of Russia as springing from | ns reddened the pages of history; of the depths of _ big events of history, and hundreds of minor ones, castle dungeons where prisoners of state dragged out their wretched lives await- t ho will ever continue to hold th ing a day of detiverance that never came. 5250 Pages Large, Clear tones of fate of th ie Per Battle of Cann: hat put an en ch Cxsar displ re see! 20 Gold Top Volumes Type Rich Cloth Extra Heavy Binding Paper Each Volume 60 Full Page 8x 5% inches Illustrations in Sepia Partial List of Famous Characters © A WONDERFUL BARGAIN 00 See ee | Every One a Wonderful Personali mw STgetNCS Penciosertae ee Gaewest tf 1. Alerander the Great ersonality DUMAS GIVEN If You Are Prompt = Soe from ihe 1 bilsher's price. has already been = Willian he Copsueror: epg counon Telex] We pot only. send you the 20 volumes of F. PRICE MUST BE ADVANCED 4. Hannibal 3 ater the few remalnias res are rone that were male befor the ‘the human elements in his French and soldiers of fortune, dramatiz- 8. Pyrrhus 6. Peter the Great 7. Genghis Khan 8. Hernando Cortez 9. Marie Antoinette 10. Romulus 11. Mary Queen of Scots 12. Henry 1V p AAS the result of this Inere @, ve can obtain NO More seis to offer at the prese! bargain price. THEREFORE SEND COUPON TODAY UNSWICK SURSCRITTION (0. 407 13. Xerxes 17. Darius the Great 14. Julius Cesar 18. Josephine 15. Nero 19. Queen Elizabeth 16. Cleopatra 20. Alfred the Great