Life, 1909-10-14 · page 25 of 36
Life — October 14, 1909 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct sections: a fictional dialogue about medical history and a product advertisement. **The "Sparks" column** presents a doctor recounting the history of medicine, boasting about 18th-century French medical advancement—dissecting cadavers and conducting experiments on executed criminals. The satirical point attacks the doctor's pompous self-satisfaction despite medicine's brutal past. The dialogue suggests that progress required questionable ethics, and the doctor's pride in these "achievements" is darkly ironic. **The Libbey Glass advertisement** dominates the page, promoting cut glass as an American luxury product. It argues that fine cut glass deserves the same status as silver and china, claiming America leads in this artistic field. The ad targets affluent households, encouraging collectors to treat cut glass purchases with serious discretion. The page juxtaposes medical history's moral compromises against consumerist appeals to refinement—typical of *Life* magazine's satirical approach to American society and values.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
f. z SPARKS E Medical Science—Always the Same. young man,” said the doctor kindly, able! My whole life has been given I studied at Montpelier—the first France, and by consequence in Europe. we disciples of Hippocrates and Galen tunities those great ancients never quadrupeds and apes, and medanism! We bought of we shook the gallows; we sexton’s work o° dark nights, pene- ih love of science and our kind. All the cs had their orders from Paris to wink; y winked. Gods of Olympus, how they The gracious king assisted us; he sent a year a living criminal condemned to | said, ‘Deal ye with him as science Dissect him alive if ye think fit.’ sellom or never dissected the living criminal except in part, We mostly inoculated then) with such diseases as the barren time af- forded, selecting of course the most interesti the foulest,"" hat _means whispered Denys, we watched through all their stages, to death of the poor rogue,’? whis- poor sufferer, who best merits c, this honest soldier with his orance, and his prejudices, or a cn with the gathered wisdom of The Cloister and the Hearth. First Experience of the World and a boy in y—the best kind of boy to be in the would be about ten years of age. got older, I would quit it. The is that just as he begins mself he is too old, and has to ing something else. If a country boy were wise he would stay at just that age he could enjoy himself most and have the expected of him in the way of work ourse the perfectly good boy will always to work and to do “chores"’ for his ind errands for his mother and sister rather than enjoy himself in his own way. I one such boy. He lived in the { Goshen—not the place where the butter sade, but a much better Goshen than that 1] never saw him, but I heard of him: and being about the same age, as I supposed, I was aken once from Zoah, where I lived, to Goshen im. But he was dead. He had been Imost a year, so that it was impossible to He died of the most singular disease ; from not cating green apples in the season 1. This boy, whose name was Solomon, before he died, would rather split up kindling- wood for his mother than go a-fishing. The con- sequence was that he was kept at splitting kin- dling-wood and such work most of the time, and grew a better and more useful boy day by day. (Continued on page 527) were forced to be a boy, summer—t As soon as I trouble with a boy to enjoy h be ‘set 10 d “The Eternal Fitness” of Fine Cut Glass Have you ever seen a piece of ‘really fine cut glass which did | question. |dining table or sideboard— not confer dignity upon its sur- rounding Flank it with silver, china or porcelain —does it not still retain all of its own individuality; and accentuate the beauty around it? Cut glass is at home everywhere. Its good taste, its beauty and its use- fulness are beyond It is the one field of artistic endeavor in which America is pre-eminent. It lifts out of the commonplace a score of household items on the and adds its quota of refinement and Be Won Ds Ea beauty to almost every other room in the house. The careful buyer treats his cut glass as a valuable collection —to be chosen piece by piece with the utmost care and discretion. And this sense of discretion must perforce lead the collector to prefer Libbey Cut Glass. There is nothing beyond or above Libbey—it is pre- cisely what the famil- iar phrase of these announcements it— ‘the world’s best.” You will, of course, be sure to visit the one store in your com- Libbey Cut terms munity which sells Gl The Libbey Glass Company, Toledo, Ohio “aM, YES! THERE IS BEAUTY IN EVERYTHING, IP WE WILL BUT LOOK FoR 1T.’” $25 comicbooks.com