ComicBooks.com Register / Loginit's free!

Life, 1910-03-31 · page 38 of 46

Life — March 31, 1910 — page 38: what you’re looking at

📖 Open the full issue in the page-flip reader →
Life — March 31, 1910 — page 38: Life, 1910-03-31

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily a commercial advertisement, not a political cartoon. It advertises a remaindered book set—Guy de Maupassant's complete works in seventeen volumes. **The business premise**: A publisher acquired books that customers had partially paid for but then defaulted on their installment payments. Rather than absorb the loss, the company is reselling these returned sets at a discount ("less than half-price, upon small monthly payments"). **The satire implicit in the headline**: "One Man's Loss Is Another Man's Gain" acknowledges the awkward situation: defaulting customers' financial failure becomes an opportunity for new buyers. The ad tries to frame this sympathetically by guaranteeing the books are in perfect condition (damaged volumes were replaced). **Historical context**: This reflects early 20th-century subscription publishing practices, where customers bought expensive multi-volume sets on installment plans—a risky venture for both parties. The ad represents a common problem of the era: overextended buyers unable to complete payments. The page also includes a small literary column and other period advertisements, typical of *Life* magazine's mixed content format.

📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)

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

WINTER SPRING: SUSIMER, PARTLY-PAID-FOR BOOKS One Man’s Loss Is Another Man’s Gain This Is Your Opportunity—Read Carefully We have on hand filty-seven (57) sets of the original American and English copyrighted complete edition o| GUY DE MAUPASSANT’S WORKS This edition is absolutely unexpurgated and contains a wonderful critical preface by Paul Bourget, of the French Academy. These fifty-seven (57) sets—seventeen (17) magnificent volumes—are exquisitely bound in blue Vellum De Luxe Cloth, with distinctive brown and gold labels, silk head bands and gold tops—have been partly pid for by someone. These sets were subscribed for by our customers and delivered to them, and we received in payment about one-half of our price; then the books were returned to us on account of the inability ot e subscribers to pay us the balance due. ‘The books have been thoroughly inspected, and where a volume was not absolutely good as new, a new volume was substituted; thus these fifty-seven sets are perfect in every respect. This we guarantee, The regular price of the seventeen (17) volumes is $51 a set, but as we have already received about one-half of the price of these books from our customers, we have decided to let these special sets, only fifty-seven (57) in number, go to those who first apply, for less than half-price, upon small monthly payments. Read the coupon carefully. As Realistic as Balzac—More Entertaining Than the Arabian Nights. Seventeen beautiful volumes—8 x 5¥% Inches, containing 2277 000 pages, from the master mind of tho test and most interesting short-story writer the world has known. It brary of the most whimsical, the most pas- ate, the most humorous, the most pathetic stories that have ever been written. This {s the Original American and English copyrighted, COMPLETE Edition De Maupassant wrote with the conviction that in life there could be no phase so noble or so mean, so honorable oF 40 contemptible, 40 lofty oF so low, as to be unworthy of chronicling —no groove of human virtue or fault, siccess oF failurey ‘wisdom or folly that did not possess its own pecullar psychological aspect and therefore demanded analysis. Robust in imagination and fired with natural fervor, his psychological curiosity kept him true to human nature, while at the same time his mental eye, when fixed upon the most ordinary phases of human conduct, could see some new motive or aspect of things hitherto unnoticed by the careless crowd. His dramatic instinct was supremely powerful. He seemed to select unerringly the one thing tn which the soul of the scene Is prisoned, and, making that his keshote, gives a picture In words which haunts the memory like a straln of music, These marvelous, quaint, delicious stories should be a part of every library. Here are given tales of travel and adventure, of mystery ‘and dread, of strange medical experi , of love, of comedy and pathos, that hover upon the borders of comedy an of tragedy. Hundreds of thousands know and own these books. Thelr sale ts ever increasing, because they are real books to be read and enjoyed—not to be put away and never looked it ‘The WERN COMPANY, Akron, Oblo: Seventeen Beautiful Volumes of Delightful Reading i Dt fod ne eat, | consisting of over 5,200 pages printed from tion ; If the books are not found to be sat: | A Hew cast of French Elzevir ty pe—elegant one of’ the tsfactory, return them at our expense; | and clear—on pure white antique egg For" sets of the you donot take any risk; Itcosts you | shell-fintshed paper, made especially for works of Guy de Maupassani ; < | this edition. Pages have deckle edges ingeventeen (19) Volumes und nothing to hare the books sent to| And iiberal marging, “There are 30 iluse in Blue Vellum De Luxe Cloth. you; If you do not care to keep| trations from original drawings, The for eleven (11) months. T¢ not satis are to be returned, all charges | prown and gold title ‘label, silk bead: factory, I will advise you within collect, bands and gold tops. ie This 1s positively the chance of a lifetime xaos MAIL THE COUPON NOW! CHF ocr 7 THE WERNER COMPANY, Akron, 0. Liged-31-10. half-price. We extend to you free examina: Signature, To Writers We want Unusual, Fascinati Vold. “The shorter the bette We judge stories snlely upon their meritsas 1 or repatation of a writer Counts for nothing with vs We pay not according to length but according to st: we pay promptly upon acceptance. Feteive attention manuscripts must be sent and accompanied by return posta For ten cents we will mail ten com- pets Stories of the ind we want. The Literary Zoo (Continued from page 577) write a paragraph for his “ Anaton Why should we? Yet failure has attended our toil. If the danderine of climate and food grown our literature we cannot prove it. We had overlooked the accepted fact, for example, that New York, Bos- ton, Chicago, have no climate—only weather. Philadelphia is lacking in environment, if opulent in suburbs. Indiana, to be sure, has atmosphere, but it is the dense atmosphere of a State overpopulated by authors; it perplexes us to determine just how their works “breathe "—and what It is here that we strike the root of our trouble. Whatever may be true in a large sense of France or England you cannot generalize about the Ameri- can climate. The Englishman's in- spiration may be rooted in roast beef, the Frenchman's style in sauces and champagne; but what is the chief of our diet? Again, generalizations are misleading. Name, then, if you will, at least some popular pabulum, some drink delectable to the masses and the classes. Confusion worse confounded! Correlate. if you can, our pie and ou poetry. Declare the affinity between frying pan and William Allen White. Connote the correspondence between predigested mush and Mr. Mabie's prose. Establish the relation between quick lunches and the Helicon Hall school of fiction. Ham and eggs have been wedded to the music of immortal verse in the temple of the New Orleans Times-Democrat, but— “We have no national puts in an impertinent person who been looking over our shoulder. Nev- ertheless, we cannot revise these re- marks. And we still cling to Taine. His theories may be untenable, but how he could write! W. T. Larned. aot puazzas: ithe breeze: o> al © Sn outdoor oor Mention Life for tree par bite Orders shold he plared nem for early veo JAMES G. Wit ‘3and’s West Dear Per “Impr the in be pi peeval traveli impres ser in by all lief true th ost ¢ sch th 2 nati of the WA cnergi vould sressio itating te fa farents Lire tomen troadl; tkeir p comicbooks.com