Life, 1907-12-05 · page 26 of 68
Life — December 5, 1907 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents a Christmas greeting spelled acrostically using Theodore Roosevelt quotations, compiled by Agnes Deans Cameron. The illustration shows Santa Claus's head framed by a wreath, with stockings hanging below. The content is **not satirical**—it's sincere moralizing. Rather than mocking Roosevelt, *Life* magazine presents his philosophy as inspirational holiday wisdom. The acrostic spells "MERRY CHRISTMAS" vertically down the left margin, with Roosevelt's statements on duty, honest work, character, and social responsibility filling both columns. The emphasis throughout reflects early 20th-century Progressive values: workers deserve dignity ("the man with the dinner-pail"), citizens must balance individual rights with community welfare, and honest labor builds national character. This represents Roosevelt's philosophy of robust individualism paired with social obligation—positioned here as timeless Christmas principles rather than contemporary political commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Our Christmas Greeting in Acrostic Compiled from the Sayings of Theodore Roosevelt by Agnes Deans Cameron LL of us stumble many times during a lifetime, and the duty of a man to his neighbor is to help him to his feet so he may help himself. Mest vividly we must recognize the falsity of the belief that any one of us is to be permanently benefited by the hurt of another. | yc man has got to at least pull his own weight, and if he is worth his salt he will pull a little more. EST and peace are good things—are great blessings, but only if they come honorably. Rect to do our duty well and manfully, resolute to uphold righteousness by deed and by word, let us boldly face life. Our good laws will do something, but the best law can never do more than let a man work out his own salvation. APACITY for work is absolutely necessary, and no man can be said to live in the true sense of the word if he does not work. ONESTY and courage are not enough—you must have common sense. OUGH, vigorous pastimes are excellent things for the nation, for they promote manliness. HOPE to see all our people develop the softer, gentler virtues to an ever-increasing degree, but I hope never to sce them lose the sterner virtues that make men men. Ss all of us look forward to the day when there shall be a nearer approximation than there has ever yet been to the brotherhood of man and the peace of the world. HE law of worthy work well done is the law of successful American life. ORE than aught else, we need for our citizenship character—character into which shall enter honesty, courage, and the saving grace of common sense. AbWays stop to consider the rights of others before standing up for your own. So indissolubly is the true welfare of the nation bound up with the welfare of the farmer and the wage-Worker, of the man who tills the soil, and of the mechanic, the handicraftsman and the laborer. OR the individual and for the community, the simple life is normally the healthy life. EALIZE that there is but one safe rule to follow in public life as in private life, and that is the old, old rule of treating your neighbor as you would like your neighbor to treat you—the old rule of decency, of honesty, of square dealing as between man and man. ov society rests upon the man with the dinner-pail. ERE life of ease is not in the end a very satisfactory life. ET every man be sure he is in the right and then let him stand squarely in the path. If there is any moving to be done, let the other fellow do it. DESPISE the man who will not work—he is not worth envying no matter at which end of the social scale he is. Froorces which make the farm-bred boys leaders of men are still at work in our country districts. EAc# at times stumbles and halts—each needs the help- ing hand outstretched to him. comicbooks.com