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Life, 1909-12-16 · page 29 of 32

Life — December 16, 1909 — page 29: what you’re looking at

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Life — December 16, 1909 — page 29: Life, 1909-12-16

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily **advertising**, not political satire. The dominant content features three product advertisements: **Pebeco Tooth Paste**, **Rad-Bridge playing cards**, and **Père Chartreux liqueur**. However, the left column contains a **literary essay titled "Wanted—A New Dumas,"** which critiques American fiction. The piece argues that popular "five-cent" pulp novels like the **Nick Carter series** (cheap dime-novel detective stories read by messenger boys) have paradoxically gained respectability—even being dramatized in Paris by prestigious French playwrights. The author laments this as a symptom of declining literary standards in America. While Nick Carter represents "rough and lowly" entertainment, the essay protests that serious American fiction has become overly refined and detached from "genuine manly life." The piece concludes by wishing for a new Dumas—implying America needs a great novelist who can capture authentic human experience, not merely upper-class drawing-room minutiae or formulaic pulp. This reflects early 20th-century anxieties about American culture and literary quality.

📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)

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

COTyEWS Xa. ye Ten-Day Trial Tube and MOTOR YACHTS|FAQN “ee Test Papers Mailed Free and RUNABOUTS PORT CLINTON, OHIO, U. S. A. 5 Acid in the mouth is the cause of tooth decay. The acid attacks a ic 7 the enamel siving a foothold to Wanted—A New Dumas = It will surprise most Americans to / = q know that “Nick Carter" has been C destruction of the tooth. The dramatized and produced with great suc- | G 1 +E ; regular use of cess in Paris, the undoubted artistic — center of the world. The men who turned it into a play are such important personages as Alexandre Bisson and Guillaume Livet. The French press pro- nounces it an ingenious and entertaining melodrama and the French public likes it : Nick Carter, a product of this country, me T th P. t is best known to messenger boys, and as Y (ete) aste a rule he is read surreptitiously. The : books about him are the lowest form of s fiction, considered in a literary sense. keeps the mouth free from acid, cleanses the teeth Most men and women know. of him only | perfectly, polishing and whitening them to a marked through hearsay, yet the names of Nick 4 + : é as Carter and Old Sleuth have become degree, and leaving a clean, refreshed sensation, which makes its use a daily pleasure. household words. Z This survival of a hero of five-cent Only by trying Pebeco can you realize its remarkable ion and his elevation to a place upon $ efficiency. Send for a trial tube—we gladly send it and the Test Papers, which afford an interesting test by which the stage of an ancient and critical ¢ you can promptly tell if you have “‘acid mouth” and also demon- tal, when thousands of novels written by cultivated men and women for other cultivated men’ and) women bays base strate how Pebeco overcomes this condition, thus preventing decay. eee aot tate dhe iGan at atte Pebeco relieves tender gums, overcomes unpleasant breath, and is a complete = Cg ‘Canter “he fhediatigesiboy bere. prophylactic for the entire oral cavity. Pebeco originated in the hygienic laboratories * ire . of P. Beiersdorf & Co., Hamburg, Germany, and is sold everywhere in large 50 cent tubes, or we mail prepaid upon receipt of price. Only a small quantity is used at each brushing of the teeth—Pebeco is very economical. a \ PEBECO however humble his guise, had it The true function of fiction is to create character, not to preach; to present men and women in their most striking mani- Jestations, and not to tell in detail to inSnity the small affairs of ordinary life. When the healthy man is bidden to read six hundred closely printed pages tellin how one Boston family resents the ar- rival in its vicinity of another Boston fomily not quite so old, he rebels, and re- bellion in the face of overwhelming in justice is the inalienable right of all peo- "i : ple. CARDINAL MERRY DEL VAL Nick Carter, rough and lowly though uct the Cardinal Merry Del Va he may be, is also a protest OLRRIDCE- steady progress of our toward nerves and femi How lit- tle do their short stories express the genuine manly life of the nation! Usu- TOOTH PASTE For Trlal Tube and Test Papers Address Lehn & Fink, stew voneor ally it is the procession from the blue room to the brown and the discussion of subconscious motives or mere phases of feeling. When an editor of a leading azine tells an author—as has been that he will not print any short “without feminine interest” we may well feel that fiction has become air of the hot-house. at a boon it would be to the world if a new Dumas, a manly and powerful genius, should appear, riding down the literary manikins, sweeping out of his | the heroes of the afternoon teas and LIQU EU R ¢ imitation bohemians! This rude fel- low would probably smash all the panes in the literary hot-house, but at the same 300 YEARS BS f arlrelly time he would fill the souls of mature THE WORLD'S and strong men with delight —New York MOST —GREEN AND YELLOW— FAMOUS ” Try One More Good Dinner aaa Eat anything you desire and while eating sip CORDIAL A Grocerm Hotelae Galea espnnatae » MAN-A-CEA WATER Bole avents tor United Sisies Immediately Restores Good Digestion Recommended and sold by Park & Tilford: Charles & C % | Acker. Merrall & Condit: Hegeman: Riker: Milhaus $ | Bigelow: Grocers and Druggists generally, BrDedrereetedetes ete sreondetetocoetetetetentetetrteateteteteeontetrteceedetetooetetetocosndoetetotoeeteteteoetetecteitetetectnteatneaetn | SSTANSE. -A-OE. Wi VATE CO.. 13 Stone St., New York. 01 sep Setoetardoeceezoetont ose comicbooks.com