Life, 1909-12-02 · page 11 of 80
Life — December 2, 1909 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising and editorial content** rather than political satire. The left column contains an editorial essay titled "Christmas and Gift Books," discussing the tradition of giving books as gifts—particularly noting how books come in decorative boxes and the practice of examining them before purchasing. The right side features **product advertisements**: - A Diamond Tires ad (1908-1910 comparison imagery) - A Rad-Bridge playing cards advertisement - A PBR Lager beer advertisement The editorial text mentions "Scrooge" in reference to the Christmas season and gift-giving customs, making a literary allusion rather than political commentary. There is **no political cartoon or satire visible** on this page—it's a standard early 20th-century magazine layout mixing editorial content with period advertisements.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Christmas and Gift Books F° n years, quite without an excogitated reason for the attitude, Lire has consistently forborne to look any gift-book in the mouth. It has, of course, been aware that some books come in pasteboard boxes; also that some ooks affect, on three or even on four les of each page of text, a broader or narrower band of purple, foliated, fili- greed, diddles, But, to be perfectly candid in confession, it has never thought to inquire further into these phenomena. In fact it has gone con- tentedly on its way, carelessly following lines of greater resistance and never so much as asking itself what it thought of any books not likely to be bought, bor- rowed or stolen for the purpose of read- ing thet For, somehow, white pasteboard boxes do not suggest reading. Rather they hint of assurances, appropriately con- veyed, that the donor recognizes the lit- erary and esthetic inclinations of the re- cipient and wishes him or her a long lease of them. One does not even asso ciate the contents of such boxes with paper cutters; but rather with carefully dusted fingers and with uncut pages hesitantly turned in search of illustra tions—nor with library shelves so much as with “parlor tables."" In short one feels about these original packages very wuch as one does about those smaller parcels that they so closely resemble- th but greedy persons ever really cat wedding cake Bo oie meee Users Know Scrooge to a sense of his delin- quencies (or is it only a vagrant imp of curiosity?) has whispered in our ear that it is Christmas—the season of gifts ‘4 = - : ~ nd gingerbread ; the time, if there is a <t D> time, to take the covers off of these white glacé boxes and see what manner of books is inside of them. And, of THE course, one chooses the fattest first | DIAMOND RUBBER C AKRON, OHIO SISTANCE SAINT NICHOLAS Then wp soake the good Santa Clans They bee piapecus equally of course, perhaps, stumbles upon Kod waa’ ee away ree a surprise at the very beginning. For AXING OARDS although the box is only inscribed French Cathedrals, the book itself—sober blue or bode and gold and not at all gifty look 144 Peart 8t. New York, bears the names of the Pennells, Eliz beth and Joseph. And a glance at the introduction proves that the same pen that gave us the life of Whistler has oe skits Weekes been delightfully at work here and tempts wench aciee us to start eating cake ourselves. And ested : even Josephy's etchings make us wonder lope Different from All Others (remembering his last year’s exhibition fo SAR OER AND ton 39, Sta 50 4.38; 180, $2.25; Fae ot cork tipped. I net at your wots we send prepeld upon receipt of Bi i E. Hoffman Company, Mfre, 179 Madison 8t., Chicago (Continted eal tees:274) comicbooks.com