Life, 1910-06-16 · page 29 of 44
Life — June 16, 1910 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily a **Gillette Safety Razor advertisement** (top two-thirds) with an unrelated poem below. The ad features five illustrated men in profile, presented as exemplars of modern masculinity and success. The accompanying text connects clean-shaving to character and ambition: young men who "do things" shave daily, and grooming reflects self-respect and regular habits. The ad frames the Gillette as enabling efficiency—shaving in three minutes—and positioning it as a tool of self-improvement tied to professional and social advancement. The message conflates personal grooming with moral character, a common early 20th-century marketing tactic appealing to aspirational working and middle-class men. Below is an unrelated poem, "The Housewife and the Fly," using the housewife's perspective to humorously detail disease transmission by houseflies—reflecting contemporary public health concerns about sanitation and germ theory that were gaining public attention in this era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
he country’s future is written in the faces of the young men. They are clean-shaven faces. In the store, the counting-room, the classroom, the office—in work and sport out of doors— the men who do things shave for the day just as they dress for the day. The use of the Gillette Safety Razor is almost a universal habit with men of affairs. It is not solely a question of economy—though it means a great saving. It’s a matter of comfort, of cleanliness, of time. The Gillette is a builder of self-respect. The man who doesn’t care how he looks does not care much about anything else. The Gillette is a builder of regular habits. GILLETTE SALES COMPANY, New York, Times Building Chicago. Stock Exchange Building ‘Canadian Office, 63 St. Alexander Street, Montreal Gillette Safety Razor, Ltd., Londor Own a Gillette—be master of your time—shave in three minutes. No stropping, no honing. You don’t have to take a corres- pondence course to learn how to use it. Just buy it and shave. Thirty thousand dealers sell the Gillette. If there is no one in your neighborhood send us $5 and we'll send the razor and twelve double-edged blades by return mail. Write and we will send you a pamphlet—Dept. A. King CL Mele 48 W. Second Street, Boston Eastern Oftice, Shanghai, China Factories: Boston, Montreal, Leicester. Berlin. Paris The Plamawike andl dhe. Fy said the Housewife to the Fly; “Don't come into my parlor,’? There's a screen at every window, and your entrance I defy There are microbes in your footsteps and a crust upon your head, Which, if not so microscopic, would fill our hearts with dread. You carry germs of typhoid and spread consumption’s bane, \nd our sanitary teachers paint your crimes in language plain. ont come into my parlor; and for safety I would pray 'f you walked into my dining room upon some sunny day. “There are seeds of vile distempers hidden in your tiny wings And your many feet have traveled over nameless filthy thing You're a menace to our safety, you are powerful though st And the mischief you accomplish would the bravest heart appall “If you enter, I have poison all prepared for you to ‘eat, And paper spread to tangle your germ-laden wings and feet I will poison, trap or smash you if you do not leav door; For our modern sanitation will endure your catls no more.”’ —A. F. Dyer, in Good Housekeeping. comicbooks.com