Life — April 2, 1908 — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

Life and the Jews = EDITOR OF LIF! I am prompted to write to you in answer to the letter in last week's issue of Lire signed “J. R. Benton,” to whose sen timents I take exception. To begin with, 1am a Jew. Iam neither proud nor ashamed of the fact. Like Mr. Benton, permit me to say that I, too, heartily approve of the stand you have taken in regard to caricatures of the Jew, so long as it does not contain such an un-American spirit as malice. I have been a reader of Lire for some time, and have laughed as heartily at the cartoon of the Jew as I have at the others; but where I differ with poor Benton is on the question of “real Americans.” My great-grandmother was Dutch. My grandfather died in New York City at the age of ninety-five, having spent over seventy years in America. My father came to this country when he was seven ycars of nd remained here. My mother was born and bred in this city, and so was I. So were all of my brothers and sisters, and we have prided ourselves on the fact that we are real Americans, During a recent trip to London I was almost boastful that can, but if J. R. Benton, of s right, I can never be a real American” because I am a Jew. To give Mr. J. R. Benton a little in- ‘LIFE: struction, I would call his attention t circumstance that ] am a Jew by r but a real, live, kicking American by nationali Should this country be so un- fortunate as to have to resort to war, nothing on earth could induce the real American Jew to fight for any nation except our beloved United States of America. We welcome the management of Ameri- can affairs by honest, competent Americans, whether native born or naturalized, white or black, Jew or Gentile. : To conclude, permit me to pay my re- spects to Rabbi Martin Ziclonka, and to say that most pcople who have read and studied “The Merchant of Venice” will readily condemn the Rabbi's request to have the comedy withdrawn from the schools of El Paso, or any other place. And I, too, make a “vigorous protest” against the action of any school board that’ pur- poscly excludes any of Shakespeare's plays from its curriculum. Let us all remember, please, that there are good and bad men who are Jews, and, though he be Jew or Gentile, “a man’s a man, for a’ that.”” This Jew, for one, will continue to read Lire so long as its past standard is main- tained. Since: ABRAHAM KAUFM. 34 West One Hundred and Sixteenth Street, New York, February 25, 1908. From a Well-Known Manufacturer IFE PUBLISHING COMPANY: Gentlemen—It is now over twenty-five years since I first read Lire, and have for- gotten when I first became a regular sub- EASTER DREAM OF A MAN WITH A WIFE AND SI DAUGHTERS A SPRING TRILBY scriber, but were I compelled in these rough and economical times to cut my subscription down to one magazine or paper I would stick to Lire. It serves me well politically, it should help me morally, it makes me laugh and now it has struck another spot by advertising rum. Thave been making rum since 18115 that is, including my father and grandfather before me, as my grandfather at age twenty- one commenced to learn the business that year; and, if I do say it who shouldn't, I have been and am now making the best rum. I have not, however, been as smart as I should and made money enough to retire from active business and become an investor or a preacher of total abstinence. But now that I learn from Lire that possibly the world could not get along without rum, verily, why should I not be content to con- tinue to make it, for somebody must make it, and make it good? Yours very truly, RED. L, FELTON. Boston, February 21, 1908. Something Wrong AY, bartender, there’s a mistake.” “Well, well, what’s the matter?” I tasted beer in the glass of foam you gave me.” WE ARE willing to be knaves in order to acquire wealth, and fools in order that it may not bore us. comicbooks.com