Life, 1907-10-17 · page 16 of 44
Life — October 17, 1907 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes early 1900s American literary culture and naval policy through three distinct pieces. **The cartoons** (top) show three female authors labeled with names like "Strong Hearts"—likely representing popular women writers of the period whose autumn novels dominate bestseller lists. The satire mocks authors constantly boasting that "my book sold best a year ago," suggesting fleeting commercial success and literary pretension. **"Agitating Alternatives"** critiques newspaper editorial anxiety about sending battleships to the Pacific, apparently in response to tensions with Japan. Life ridicules the *Sun* newspaper's contradictory position: warning war is inevitable while simultaneously urging retention of Japan's goodwill and naval strength—a logical impossibility Life compares to treating consumption with whisky (temporary fix, permanent damage). **The advertisements** are satirical fake classifieds mocking publishers, authors, and cigars—including a jab at "Nature Fakers" (writers of fabricated nature stories) to "apply to the White House," likely referencing contemporary President Theodore Roosevelt's known criticism of such literary fraud. The overall tone is witty mockery of American cultural and political pretension.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
STRONG HEARTS HERE is a cry we always hear In that delightful season when The autumn novels all In gala binding once again, ‘This is the boast the world hears thea From many an author, great or low, As they Survey the List of Ten, “ My book sold best a year ago.” Agitating Alternatives HE Sun affects to be in a state of double-leaded nerves about the sending of the battleships to the Pacific. Rising in the editorial pulpit on Sunday, September 20, it said: The navy is going to the Pacific for war with Japan, and Japan recognizes the fact and is energetically preparing for it. Once the operation of transferring our ships to Pacific waters has been accomplished war is inevitable. It is an insane project. The Sun medicines. Lire has not been consulted about the battleship order, and admits that it is uncertain whether the projected transfer is wise or not. But if there is serious danger of war with Japan—which seems highly improbable—the most natural way to avert it would seem to be, first, to use every reasonable means to retain Japan's good will, and, second, to keep a sufficient naval force in the Pacific to scems to need soothing MAY cINcLanK Ballade of Best Sellers JOSEPHINE DASKAM BACON Brief is the life of books, I feat (And yet there lives John Luther Long!) Some reap a har st in a year, Then dic, forgotten by the throng. Who kno Success is fle if this be right or wrong? ig, yet I know 'Tis something to have sung this song, “My book sold best a year ago!" make it extrahazardous to assail our in- terests in that ocean. And yet, if it is expedient to send nearly all of our navy to the Pacific to keep the peace there, under what conceivable conditions will it seem expedient to bring the fleet back again? Must not a peace that depends upon the weight of available battleships continue to de- pend on it? It is too much like the old- fashioned whisky cure for consumption, which (sometimes) cured the disease and left the patient in the gripof a fatal habit. Gifts HERE are gifts and gifts. A gift may be an expression of good-will, pure and simple, or it may be the sly means of working off a joke. Everybody has heard of the white clephant. The white elephant, on the face of it, was a princely gift, but it proved ruinously expensive in the end, for it ate enormously and was all the time getting into mischief. Theodore means the gift of the gods. Our Ad. Column RUE FRIENDS WANTED—Those who will overlook all previous faults. Address C. M. D., Senate Chamber, Washington. LiTeRARY ATMOSPHERE— Delivered in crates, boxes or sealed cans. Special dis- count to long-established authors. All grades, from historical novel to epigram. Apply Publishers’ Row. Tue JEKomE Cicar—Made of Con- necticut filler. Goes up in smoke every time. Testimonials from experts. Three sizes: “Nothing Doing,” “Sensational,” and “Newspaper Story.” IntTER-Met. Watt Paper—Specially new designs. Made from the real bonds. Twenty-five cents a roll. Has been marked down. Makes very rich-looking interiors. A limited stock. Nature Faker—Any nature faker who has not been noticed or denounced in any way will hear something to his ad- vantage by applying to the White House, Washington. comicbooks.com