Life — November 22, 1906 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Di: TEXAS. Lire Puptisuixc Company: Gentiemen—Having read some of your criticisms in Lire, kindly ask that you publish the enclosed clipping. ‘Thanking you in advance. Yours tn Oct. 21, 1906 nL. Pier, ‘The enclosed was taken from American Isradlite: “Sam Lewis" was a Jew money lender; under his will, which has become operative by the death of his wife, the poor and charities of London get about $15,000,000. Russell Sage was a good church mem- ber who living or dead gave nothing to any person of cause but good advice. Marshall Field, out of an estate of $1 50,000,000, Jeft not a dollar for any public purpose. ‘The cases are typical. PROPOS of “An Old Love Song,” in our advertising pages, we have received the following: My Dear Lire: We are three single girls under twenty-two, and have just received your beautiful drawing. Will you please tell us what kind of house it is, as we all sing “Annie Laurie” with great expression, and are most desirous of arousing such feeling. Yours truly, Vera, Lernicr, ‘Trix PSWe ansiously await an answer i columns. IF ALL THE GooD TIPS CAME TRUE RAMINGHAM, MASS. ‘To te Errors or Lire: Gortlemen—1 shall most certainly renew my sub- scription to your valued paper, Lirr, for the coming year, although a risky thing to venture to do at cighty-six years of age; but at the same time let me tell you, I miss some of your old artists, Lire, like myself, is not quite what it was some years back; no advertisements will supply the place of “wit" and fine caricatures like those of Flagg and some others, Tadmired your editorial on Dr. Cragsey. I like your principles and I like your paper. Keep it up to the mark! Cordially and respectfully, Mas. Joux L. Witsow. “The Bath of Multitude” Sucu of us as detest being caught in great street crowds have only to read Baudelaire on ‘Crowds,’ to learn that we are egoists—Baudelaire, whom Victor Hugo crédited with having “created a new shudder.” He says it is “‘not given every man to take a bath of multitude. To play upon crowds is an art; and he alone can plynge, at the expense of humankind, into a debauch of vitality to whom a fairy has bequeathed in his cradle the love of masks and disguises, the hate of home and the passion of travel.” No, thank heaven! This bath of mul- titude is a poct’s privilege. Ordinary per- sons will stick to the conventional tub and give up, without one pang, the feverish joys and ‘‘singular intoxication” of this enthusiast “‘who mates casily with the crowd.” Of a truth, this bath of multitude is out of date. Had Baudelaire lived half a century later he might not have declared that who cares not for his favorite pre- scription is an “egoist, shut up like a coffer,” and to have compared - this exclusive one to ‘the sluggard, impris- oned like a shellfish.” And, again, one lags away behind when he asserts that “what men call love is small indeed, narrow and weak indeed, compared with this ineffable orgie, this sacred prostitu- tion of the soul, which gives itself up wholly (poetry and charity!) to the unex- pected which: happens to the stranger 2s he passes.” F, Maude Smith. Cause for Gratitude IRST STREET URCHIN (Thanks- giving morn): Got anyting ter be tankful fer, Chimmie? Seconp Street Urcuin: Sure. Me fadder’s jest been sent ter jail fer two months! F WE knew each other better, we should not find it necessary to pretend. comicbooks.