Life, 1910-05-26 · page 41 of 44
Life — May 26, 1910 — page 41: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page mixes social commentary with advertisements. The central article, "The Evils of the Night Messenger Service" by Leroy Scott, addresses child labor—specifically boys employed as nighttime messengers in American cities. The text emphasizes that this work exposes children to "vice, drunkenness and crime," and the article aims to build public support for state legislation banning such employment. The surrounding content includes humorous sketches about women's hat-making and hairstyling fashions (satirizing the elaborate, wasteful styles of the era), plus advertisements for a collapsible hammock and Evans' Ale. The boy's portrait asking "Is a Boy Like This Worth Saving?" appears designed to appeal to readers' protective instincts toward children, supporting the article's reform agenda—a characteristic Progressive Era concern about child welfare and labor exploitation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ur sys, ND here is the woman of tricks and A wiles whose hats were at one time tbe Paris styles; but the horrors of tondeau and rim and crown got on her serves and broks her down; so she sits with her paper flowers and peach baskets and great straw towers with ribbons, and buckles, and and wings, and glassware, and and other things; she twists and be bends and she dabs it here and she jabs it there till it's just a dear, so she ays herself, and she scallops the rim and sews more rubbish on crown and tim; then she tramples on it and she lays it down and she rocks her chair on the tall, tall crown, and when it is beaten and banged and torn her eyes light up with the sparkle born of genius real, and you know that she is a mis tress past of hattery. Then she trims the basket that holds the waste and builds a bonnet in perfect taste with a feather duster, an old whisk broom and a wisp of straw for an ostrich plume. But when she marks on the tag to sell at only a dollar, you know full well that her mind is gone, for no woman alive but would gladly buy it at thirty-five — |New Idea Sout. iCouch Hammock with folding steel stand and adjustable awning COOK because pe yor. Hd directly upon the duck bed—no COMFORTABLE duck bed of hammock gives to every movement and line of your body. STRONG—Stand and frame made of fine steel tubing which LiGi oir "St cighs oniy hall Ii as old style “bed” t . GI Veighs only half as much as old style “bed ham- has = Y | CONVENIENT—Although a full size 6-ft, hammock, it gators readily folds in space 36 x 14 inches. Can be obtained from dealers or write to us direct. | Our illustrated booklet and price list free on request D. W. SHOYER & CO., Dept. 14, 394 Broadway, New York rriage, | Manufacturers of the “Acme* High Art Hammocks. ND here is the maiden, oh, more > Fac- - than fair, who has robbed her mattress of all its hair and fashioned it cussed up into curlicues, and rats, and switches, ; Girl and puffs to use in assorted styles on pedals Bs her billowy crown, She puts it up and f Lies- * she takes it down and hangs it on Is a Boy bureau and stand and chair, (ill i * Lik swings and dangles from everywhese; wuffler aa Ste - or Sav: g? and puffs that wave on her forehead and cover her neck and piles in bales on and ribbons, and old goose-quill with pins and glue she sticks and stu her own hair with ringlets and frills she smooths and sticks and stuffs and Night Messenger Service stabs and dangles and does into dingle- dabs. Then she stuffs it high with old j bed springs and pillows and bath towels and other things, and sinks in her chair with a gladsome sigh, with a pile of coiffure two feet high and yards across This article is based on an exhaustive and authoritative investigation by the National ain led Weoley ee ; Child Labor Committee into the depraved ie a Adams environment and the vicious work into de” which young boys are plunged in every [Every eele city of the United States. Vice, drunken- Yachtsman ness and crime saturate the atmosphere in ies poe which these boys work. This article is published for the purpose of arousing public sentiment in support of state legislation prohibiting the employment of young boys e in the night messenger service. Written by LEROY SCOTT aboard the boat. He can th tent that nothing can mar his p Knocking around won't hurt it Always ready and dependable Leading Dealers and Places. C,H. EVANS & SONS, Hudson, N. ¥. comicbooks.com