Life, 1909-09-16 · page 30 of 32
Life — September 16, 1909 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines literary satire with advertisements. The main feature is a humorous excerpt from Sheridan's 18th-century play *The Rivals*, featuring characters Sir Anthony Absolute and Mrs. Malaprop debating whether women should be educated. Sir Anthony absurdly argues that teaching women to read is dangerous—libraries are "diabolical" and reading makes women restless. He contends wives should only know enough to count to twenty and mark his shirts. The satire targets anti-intellectual attitudes and resistance to women's education prevalent in Sheridan's era (and apparently still relevant to Life's contemporary readers). The accompanying "Culture" essay extends the critique, mocking people who consume culture superficially—attending opera with librettos, carrying botany books while picking flowers—rather than genuinely engaging with art and literature. The advertisements for Mrs. Graham's Hair Restorer and Briarcliff Lodge resort complete the page's commercial content.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
not exactly sure what culture is, but they feel that a great deal of it—whatever it is—is being poured over into them.—Gerald Stanley Lee— Mrs. Graham's , . “The Lost Art of Reading.” KNICKERBOCKER ETIQ' ————— i! Z HAIR RESTORER /3 Soap your hoxt No Use Shifting the Blame TRIAL BOTTLE FREE She's witho RAD-BRIDGE™ scores ? Gray or faded hair always Kis only Uecase a, guichamsocter The youthful author pocketed his rejected | f @ sives an aged appearance. You can . verses, but he could not swallow the editor's Rok roses toe, kro older, by criticism Restorer which in a few days “Sir,” said he, not without dignity, “a poet Rest G i is born, not made.” estores Gray Hair lee “ Young n,’’ returned the editor blandly, to its nxtaral color, Perfectly harmless—easily app! od. See Tort, 146 Fonrt Gt & Lestes, &. 6, it won't help your case to try to shift the blame lossy. Price $1.00 at all dealers or by mail. 64- on to your parents! '’—Ladies’ Home Journal. K about the hair, FREE. MRS. GERVAISE GRAHAM, 1588 Michigan Avenee, Chicago Il, ‘To shine in the hails of Knickerbocker, (Continued from page 393) What Every Woman Should Know Sir Anthony Absolute: It is not to be won- dered at, Ma’am,—all this is the natural conse- quence of teachin to read. Had I a thousand daughters, by vens! I'd as soon have them taught the black art as their alphabet! Mrs, Mal : y, nay, Sir Anthony, you Sir Anthony Absolute: In my way hither, Mrs. Malaprop, I observed your nicce’s maid coming forth from a circulating 1 had a book in each hand—they were half-bound volumes, with marbled covers!—From that mo- ment I guess'd how full of duty I should see her mistress! Mrs. Malaprop: Those are vile places, in- deed! Sir Anthony Absolute: Madam, a circulating library in a as an evergreen tree, of diabolical k J Llossoms through the And depend on it, Mrs. M they who are so fond of handling the le long for the fruit at last Mrs. Malaprop: Well, but Sir Anthony, your wife, Lady Absolute, was fond of books. r Anthony Absolute: Aye—and injury suf- ficient they were to her, Madam—but were I to chuse another helpmate, the extent of her erudi- tion should consist in knowing her simple le ters, without their mischievous combinations ;— and the summit of her se ce be her abil Carnes nay UNOS to count as far as twenty.—The first, Mrs. Mala- | 7 prop, would enabe her to work A. A. upon my Then beautify your linen ;—and the latter would be quite sufficient to home with cheerful Y teal : y prevent ne a Shirt, No. 1, and a things. On receipt of ¢ whose prices are given, Stock, No. 2.0 a twenty-five cents we | ee are PHOTO-GRA- —Sheridan, “ The Rivals,” Act. I, se. 2. will send you our little VURES of the high- Culture book, the new pocket : ‘ ; est possible quality and edition of LJFE£E’S finish. Neither care nor PAITH The printsdescribed, The kind of people one sees at opera, listening with librettos, the kind of people who puff up PRINTS containing , expense has been mountains to see views and extract geography 160 reproductions of spared to attain the from them, the people one mects in the fields, these most artistic and very best artistic re- nowadays, flower in one hand, botany in the 5 ; sults. other, the kind of people who have to have pleasure-giving — pic- : charts to enjoy stars with—these are the peopie tures. who want librarians between them and their books. The more librarians they can get stand- ing in a row between them and a masterpiece 160 Pictures the more they feel they are appreciating it, the more card catalogues, gazctteers, dictionaries, derricks, and other machinery they can have pulling and hauling above their heads in a library the more literary they feel in it. They feel cul- ture—somehow—stirring around them. They are CHARITY | These three subjects are printed to- Batancurr Maxor, N. | her as one photo-gravure, BRIARCLIFF LODGE), yee A Resort Hotel of High Qua! Open trom May Ist to December 1st with soperior accommodations for three hundred sues's. Apartments decorated and furnished under exchusive orders forleast engagement. DAVID B. PLUMER, Manager Represented at $1 Fast 4th St., New York. "Phone 3278-3mh. Mr. Plamer's winter conecrtion will he Hatel Green, at Pasadena, California. eoraine Deeember Lat. comicbooks.com