Life, 1908-08-20 · page 21 of 22
Life — August 20, 1908 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising** with one significant editorial poem. The central content is "Quadrennial Ode," a satirical poem mocking American **presidential election campaigns**. The poem uses grandiose, bombastic language to ridicule the excessive rhetoric, spectacle, and empty promises of election season—depicting campaigns as loud, chaotic theatrical productions filled with "speeches and speeches," "rhetoric, gesture and boom," "posters and torches," and "platform" hysteria. Phrases like "Jackass and pachyderm rampant" reference the Democratic donkey and Republican elephant symbols. The poem sarcastically celebrates this electoral chaos as proof that "a people [are] so free," implying the opposite: that American democracy drowns in meaningless noise rather than substantive discourse. Below, a brief article about Rudyard Kipling criticizing "Little Englishmen" begins but is cut off. The surrounding advertisements (cigarettes, whiskey, talcum powder, hats, bitters, ale, cruises) are typical period marketing with no apparent satirical intent.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ON nes. the HI the Com yyeae { wor a con boy for?” ¢ and , than Boke "LOPE" If You Can’t Get IMPERIALES CIGARETTES from your dealer send us a trial order—even if it is not for more than one package. We are anxious for every smoker in America to know the remark- able individuality and quality of Imperi- ales Cigarettes. The demand for Impe- riales has grown so great in the sections of the country where they have becn on sale for years past, that their sale is in- creasing at the rate of 25,000,000 a ycar. Imperiales Cigarettes are made of a rich, perfectly blended selec- tion of the finest leaf, rolled in thin mais pa- per—crimped, not past- ed—and with individual mouth-pieces to cool the smoke. Ask your dealer. If he hasn’t them write us. 10c for 10 THE JOHN BOLLMAN COMPANY, Mfrs. San Francisco, Cal. Best Scotland All-around Favorite Sold Everywhere. The Waldorf-Astoria Importation Co. New York —Chicago Sole Agents, MENNEN’S BORATED TALCUM TOILET POWDER for After Shaving. Taslat that your barber uses Meanen's Tolict Powder after he shaves you, Ile Anlioepticy snd will prevent any of the Prickiy Meat, Cb skin Removes all nearemihe original, Sold here, or matied for 28 coats. Sample Prete GERHARD MENNEN CO., Nowark, N. 3. QUADRENNIAL ODE. Booming and booming like thunder, up from the shores of the sea: Down from the peaks of the mountains, speeches and speeches there be; Son of Ohio in action; pride of Nebraska unfurled, Jackass and pachyderm rampant over the gabfested world, Up from the banks of the Wabash, where the tall sycamores bloom, Out from the woodnutmeg forests, rhetoric, gesture and boom; Heaving of words on split eardrums; militant ver- bosity Ossa on Pelion lifted—blest is a people so free! Near every crossroads and hamlet, by every coulee and creek, Ranners and badges and buttons, barrels with bung- holes aleak. Streams of mad eloquence flowing; oceans of specch lashed to foam, All for the glory of country, all for the altars of home. Flags snapping out from the steeples; lions of logic unchained, Chariots creaking and swaying, steeds racing wildly, unreined; Posters and torches and streamers; bulletin, bunting and band; All for the cause of the people; all for the love of the landt Oaks of the forest uprooted; sea walls of calm rent in twain; Valleys all wind swept ard beaten; shrieking of traitors in pain; Cyclones of promises whirling; blasting tornadoes ot speech; Sin Aceing madly for shelter; cannons red hot at the breeel; Canister, grape, steel ard bullet; hysterie platform and ped Simile, climax, convulsion, over and over again; Orator, spellbinder, prophet; tomtom, and hewgag a: d horn, Sounding the pledges of party to living and dead and unborn! Knee deep in words and franked speeches; ears full of clamor and din; Woe to the child of the p chin; Tossing in seas of persuasion, argument, logic ard threat; Reaten, bombarded ard batter not yet; Skies split with luminous lightnings, cliffs tumbled into the sea; Antics, gyrations, gymnastics—all that the people be free! Cymbals and tocsins and slogans; twilight and mid- day and morn, Blest be the people forever—tiving and dead and un- bornt Ne, swept by tempestuous imbecile soon but —Evening Sun, HE WAS AN ENCLISHMAN Mr. Rudyard Kipling has long since declared ainst the “Little Englishmen; there is nothing ular about him. deal that is English—in more senses than one. Not long ago this was made evident when, at a London club, he encountered one of those unfortunate beings who give their leisure moments to a study of the Baconian cipher. This person engaged Mr. Kipling in talk; at any rate he engaged the novelist in listening. For fully fifteen minutes he poured forth his arguments, and, end, wound up with: w, sir, I think even you cannot doubt that it was Bacon who wrote the plays of Shakespeare.” “Indeed?” replied Kipling with an unaffected yawn, “That may be, but really, what differe does it make so long as it was an Englishman? "— Saturday Evening Post. ‘evertheless there remains a good | The first Derby made in America was a KNAPP-FELT De Luxe hats are Six Dollars— Knapp- Felts are Four Dollars, everywhere. Write for ‘The Hatman.” THE CROFUT & KNAPP CO. BROADWAY, AT THIRTEENTH ST., NEW. YORK, nderbers foe World's Best & Bitters Oldest and best Tonic Cordial. It stimulates, in- vigorates and aids digestion as nothing else will. Sold Bverywhere, LUYTIES BROTHERS U.S, Agents, New York You will find just what you want in Evans’ Ale. Clark’s Cruises ,f “Arabic” 'i22- Feb. 4, Orient; Oct. 16,°09, Feb. $. "10, Cruises Round the World, Fall Tours, *08, Round the World. F.C. CLARK ‘Times Builds New Yorke comicbooks.com