Life, 1910-10-13 · page 25 of 44
Life — October 13, 1910 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1910s *Life* magazine page contains two satirical pieces about power and media corruption. **"Libel Suits Remembered"** references Mayor Gaynor's public attack on newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. The article notes that Hearst's papers sued for libel aggressively ($1.7 million total), intimidating other newspapers into silence. The satire: other papers were so afraid of Hearst's legal and financial power that they wouldn't even name him when republishing the Mayor's criticism, referring vaguely to "certain newspapers" instead. The joke is that Hearst's dominance made honest press criticism impossible. **"Temptation"** is a domestic comedy sketch: a landlady considers renting to a tenant who offers free newspaper delivery, free lodging services, and free utilities—an absurdly generous deal. The punchline hinges on the tenant's final revelation: he's only friendly because his in-laws are visiting; normally he'd be miserable. Both pieces reflect early-20th-century anxieties about media monopolies and social pretense.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Hit WN Libel Suits Remembered Seventeen fibel suits for $100,000 each makes one wonder if it would cost $1,700,000 to libel the respectable editor of a reputable newspaper.—!Vall Street Journal, last spring. T will be recalled that the seventeen libel suits followed the publication in the newspapers of Mayor Gaynor’s speech last spring im which he assailed Hearst. Most of the papers that copied from the Evening Post the Mayor's re- cent letter to his sister, in which he re- newed the attack on the Hearst style of journalism, omitted to name “ the Hearst Papers’ as so mentioned in the letter, but spoke of them as “certain news- papers “LIPFE* ! ALL 1S. The Hearst papers have got the news paper community pretty thoroughly scared, so that most of the other papers and almost all individuals prefer to let them alone. They are too strong in numbers, mud batteries and money for anybody but a giant-killer to fight. But then Gaynor, in. his day, has tackled some fairly portly giants. Temptation HE AGENT: cheap, madam. a month Tue Lavy (doubtfully) + Well, I don’t know; that seems rather more than we can afford. This house is very Only one thousand “Well, deliver a morning paper free as long as you are in it, I'll have you put up free at the post office and present you with a box and I'll renew your gas tips when you need ther “ How alluring! We'll take itt’? ODD: I can tell you, old man, I am feeling pretty good this morning; we just got word that my wife’s family is coming to spend Christmas with us. Sood! Why good over such a “ Well, you sce, if they weren't coming to us, we should have to visit them.” I tell you what I'll do. I> comicbooks.com