Life, 1910-03-03 · page 65 of 80
Life — March 3, 1910 — page 65: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains **two distinct sections**: a literary essay and period advertising. ## "The Literary Zoo" (left column) This is a satirical essay about literary critics and their tendency to attack established authors after they gain popular acclaim. The author argues critics experience "nausea" when an author becomes too universally praised, leading them to unfairly attack reputations like Homer or Pope. The piece humorously suggests critics themselves are subject to intellectual "sickness" and temporary fashions in taste—they're not infallible judges but flawed humans following trends. ## Advertisements (right side) The page features period ads for Maillard's cocoa (emphasizing vanilla flavoring and digestibility) and a **Rauch & Lang Electric car**—notable because it's marketed specifically to women and children as safe and simple to operate (one lever controls everything). This reflects early 1900s attitudes: electric cars were seen as safer, cleaner alternatives to gasoline vehicles, particularly appealing to female drivers in an era when women had limited transportation independence. Both sections reflect early 20th-century cultural concerns: intellectual pretension and evolving gender roles in consumer culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
g to and How sms rm. orti 1 to mon ani are Lugo, spell from loors The Pan pre- is at fog pro- gd bl ee The Best Cocoa of Them All B Os= Drink To-Day ind a favorite with thousands between nals, It agrees with all, is easily gested, and builds up the whole em, Medlard’s 1¢ you haven't tried it you've missed a ills treat. The true vanilla bean flavoring. Chocolate AT LEADING GROCERS Spend the noon hour at the Luncheon Restaurant, Afternoon, tea 3 t0 6, Fifth Avenue at 35th Street Special Easter display of Chocolates, Bonbons, French Bonbonnierés, etc. The Literary Zoo (Continued from page 408) have relied too much on our own dis- cretion and too little on the taste of the critic. It is then that we begin to ex- terience the vital pangs of readjustment Have we worshipped too blindly at the shrine of Thackeray? Henley and How- alls speak and our cyes are anointed Have we fallen prostrate before Shake- ? Mr. Shaw will help us to our Has Fitz Omar spread a net for us? It is not too late. The most massive among British critics impales him as a Heretic, crushes him by virtue of sheer spiritual bulk, rends to tatters his singing robe and sends it flying down the winds. What do we not owe to critics such as this? Conscious of our own short- comings, we frame a mental picture of ©ur potential self—in taste corrupt, in moral judgment corroded, a literary thing of shreds and patches—and, seeing it, exclaim: “There, but for the grace of Gilbert Chesterton, goes Me!” . . . Yet the critic, being only human after all, follows, like ourselves, the law of “evelopment. He, too, has his teething Teriod, and must pass through a process. He is subject to intellectual sickness that 8 sometimes the product of satiety, or brought on by an attack of tempera- ent. From one malady in particular he is never wholly immune. Popular praise of an author, carried to excess and bestowed alike by the sincere and the pretentious, excites in him a kind of nausea. This at least is a plausible explanation of what is called literary reactions, in which the critic falls a-foul of some great reputation. Perhaps the object of his attack is Homer—to cite an instance recently noted by Mr. Andrew Lang. In such a case the author recovers, but the critic does not. Pope, on the other hand, has not regathered his laurels in the re- bound. Of the pocts in this plight he is, on the whole, an exception. Thackeray, Dickens, Tennyson, have emerged from a shower of bricks, and are doing nicely The first aid to the injured George Eliot is Mr. Howells—a chivalrous act, im pelling The Bookman to shy a brick at the surgeon. When the dust settles we shall make our report. Gladly would we brave a storm of bricks could one poor word of ours re- (Continued on page 410) <= The Richest Looking of All Cars There are no other cars on the market that show such good taste in finish and furnishings as Rauch & Lang Electrics. The exquisite refinement of detail so noticeable in these remarkable. cars is the result of long experi- ence and adetermination to buildg the handsomest cars in existence. Each Rauch & Lang body rep- f resents the work of one master- craftsman for three months. That’s only one reason why the Rauch & Lang is the acknowledged leader in the electric class. Go The Safest Electric in Existence Any woman—any 12 year old child—can run the car safely. All the power and a strong brake are controlled through one simple lever. Yet all power can be shut off in- stantly with the lever in any posi- tion. The car is proof against care- lessness on the part of the operator. It has been proven by many tests to be the best car for hilly cities. The car is perfect mechanically, because our ex- ceptional force of mechanical and electrical experts make it so. It will go as far on one charge as you willever care to ride in a day. The highest type of Exide Batter- ies are used. They are noted for ex- treme ruggedness. If you want to know more about the handsomest electric made, cut out the memo to send for catalog. We have dealers in all the princi Xddress City te: comicbooks.com