Life, 1908-01-02 · page 10 of 44
Life — January 2, 1908 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine contains two distinct elements: **Top illustration**: A satirical drawing of an airship/dirigible with passengers in a basket below, captioned "HERE HE COMES!" The vessel appears to be arriving or descending, suggesting commentary on early aviation technology and perhaps the novelty or anxiety surrounding airships in the early 20th century. **Main article**: "The Just-as-Good-as Man" by John Kendrick Bangs is a humorous poem criticizing mediocrity and substitutes. The speaker resents people and products marketed as acceptable alternatives to quality originals—comparing cheap goods, poor service, and second-rate authors to the real thing. References to authors like E.P. Roe and Dickens suggest the poem satirizes middle-class consumers accepting inferior substitutes out of economy rather than demanding excellence. **Bottom photo**: Captioned "GIMME A BITE, TOO" shows what appears to be domestic animals eating.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Just-as-Good-as Man HEN I would buy a cake of soap that’s suited to my mind I much resent the man who keeps the “just-as-good-as” kind. In breakfast foods, and potted meats, and sardines in a can, The kind I want I want, despite the “just-as-good-as” man. If La porous plaster need to ease my lumba-go, And seck the druggist for to get this cure-all for my woe, It stirs my wrath to hear him say, “Our two-cent postage stamps Stick just as fast as plasters do to backaches and to cramps.” And if I'd go to Rome, N. Y., it plays the very deuce To have the porter put me off at night at Syracuse, And later on excuse himself, and impudently say That “Syracuse is just as good as Rome is any day.” In books I find it just the same. I don’t want E. P. Roe When I incline to read a line or two by E. A. Poe; And when I ask for Libby’s works how can I rest serene When Mr. Bookman hands me Caine, the “ just-as-good-as” Jean? If Dickens I am after I won't have G. P. R. James, Or Mrs. Eden Southworth or those other “good-as” names; And if in play I seck surcease at dewy eve from toil I won't have Schenck on Poker when I ask for Standard Hoyle. BERE HE Comes! In short, that “just-as-good-as” man is on my nuisance list, ‘And some day I devoutly hope we'll find that he is missed, Not to appear upon the sphere again until that hoot When Gabriel drops his ancient horn and blows his substi-toot. John Kendrick Bangs. “GIMME A BITE, TOO” i yg