Life, 1910-04-07 · page 66 of 76
Life — April 7, 1910 — page 66: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertisements and editorial commentary**, not political cartoons. The main content is "The Literary Zoo," a satirical column criticizing American periodical literature. The piece mocks magazines and newspapers for chasing profit over principle. It describes magazines as "shameless purveyors to popular whim and folly," driven solely by money rather than editorial integrity. The column contrasts cheap magazines with serious journalism, while acknowledging that newspapers themselves have ethical problems. The satire targets the public's addiction to sensationalist reading—comparing the "habit" to "a monstrous leech." An "Anxious Mother" letter questions whether contemporary periodicals are fit for family libraries, reflecting turn-of-the-century concerns about media's moral influence. The surrounding ads (letterhead, cocktails, Oriental rugs) represent the commercial interests Life was satirizing—advertisers driving content decisions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
bur Next Order for Letterheads — If your printer or lithographer agrees to furnish you Construction Bond in your letterheads, you will be assured of getting the utmost value in fine business stationery. This paper has unusual strength, bone and crackle— the qualities that make impressiveness—and because of a different, more economical method of distribution it produces Impressive Stationery at a Zésable Price Here's why Construction Bond is the utmostvalue: It is sold direct to responsible printers and lithographers (instead This is the Watermark— get Envelopes to match. of thru jobbers) and only in quantities of 00 Ibs. or more at a time (instead of in ream ots). The saving isobviou. CONSTRUCTION Your printer or lithographer can supply Construction Bond if he is big enough to buy in 500 Ib. lots and wants to give you the utmost value in fine business Stationery. If he refuses, write us for specimens of ‘Impressive Stationery Best at the Price. at a Usable Price’ and the names of firms in your vicinity who are ready to supply it on Construction Bond,—sent free if you write on your business letterhead. W. E. WROE & CO. 300 Michigan Boulevard, Chicago How many barmade cock- tails have you had that were really suited to your taste? Leave chance-made drinks for those who don’t appreciate good liquor and to yourself and your critical friends serve Cus COcKTAILs. They're infinitely better. jo made-by- guesswork drink, (gin base) and Manhattan ey base) are the most popular, At all good dealers G. F. HEUBLEIN & BRO. Hartford New York — Londoa BOND The Literary Zoo (Continued from page 649) have stopped our paper, stopped all our papers—stopped our very ears and eyes to them. eo 8 6 To Mr. Leupp we owed our alter- native. Acting on his suggestion we subscribed to all of the cheap maga- zines—cheap in price, cheap at any price; endeared only by high endeavor. Alas! we were a day too late. From our very last copy of that Sun which no longer lightens our door we extract this paragraph of a letter signed “ Anxious Mother.” What is the current periodical literature tending toward? Is it to be or is it now in fact unfit to place on our library tables for the perusal of our, children? “monthly magazine" be tabooed, with its startling titles and illustrations? Did an anxious mother actually write that letter? Without questioning the Sun’s sincerity, yet bearing in mind certain marvels of epistolary skill signed “Office Boy”—does Goldwin Smith, we say, really compose all the letters in the Sun? No matter. From the far-off Pacific comes a synchronous slap at our periodical press. Listen to the outspoken Argonaut: 650 the basis of decoration. A ry; may be modern and yet ad- mirable. Only the common- place is dear at any price. Ti rug makes the room, for it is mer Oriental Ruse ee |S W. 38th Street - New York ne | 10 ¢ The magazine is the most shameless of all the purveyors to the popular whim and folly. It has ne policy that cannot be changed over night, . . . no guide or destination but the dotlar. It is not for the magazine to throw stones at the newspaper. The news per has its faults . . . but harlotry is net its only trade. All this is very painful. Behold us on the horns of a dilemma—damned if we do or don't, our state of mind con- fused, our very metaphors mixed. The custom of newspaper reading is not easily given over. “ Will the dread habit" (see the Mempbis News-Scimi- tar) “cling to us like a monstrous leech that we cannot overthrow?” One cannot always be reading Thucydides, or whatever it is Mr. Roosevelt car- ries in his hip pocket when hunting hippopotamus. No more can one live by Mabie alone. Even John Wool- man’s “Journal” wears on one in time. What to do? A problem for you and for us. Hah! we have it. Editorially we can prove an alibi. pap “ Anxious Mother” did not write that = ™ letter to the Sun until after Lire’s Im- proper Number had appeared. See that hunch? While there is Lire there’s Hope. You cannot keep clean, you cannot even be good, unless you subscribe. Do it now. Do it to a finish, as Mr. Orison Swett Marden remarks, no matter how much it makes you perspire.—Adyv. 1 t. apl. 7. W. T. Larned. Especially in the Subway “Th in’t but one trouble with this here city air,’’“said Uncle Rufe, i the atmosphere speculatively ; need ventilatin’."’—Holland’s Magazine. THE KEEPSHAPE ng bills in half. ting yours tn ‘your wardnube. Satisfaction (rea inde. Price $1 each, 6 for $5.50 or 12 for $10 delivered. Booklet Free. comicbooks.com