Life, 1910-12-01 · page 97 of 108
Life — December 1, 1910 — page 97: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising**, not political satire. It features commercial advertisements interspersed with a "Bernard Shawisms" column—quotations attributed to playwright George Bernard Shaw. The Shaw quotes present his iconoclastic views on morality, crime, and social systems. He argues that specialists without broad knowledge are "idiots," that religious instruction is often harmful, and that capital punishment is ineffective because the real problem is the "guillotined social system," not individual criminals. His assertion that "Property...is theft" references socialist philosophy. The advertisements promote Royal Copenhagen porcelain, Kranich & Bach pianos (featuring their patented "Violyn plate"), and Cordial Fronsac cognac. At the bottom, humorous brief exchanges ("What Was the Matter with Moses?") use wordplay—one joke plays on "tablets" (the biblical stone tablets versus medicinal tablets for indigestion). The page reflects early 20th-century Life magazine's format: mixing social commentary through Shaw's aphorisms with luxury goods advertising.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Royal Copenhagen Porcelain - and Danish Arts HE attention of connois- seurs is called to speci- mens that show the most eminent technique cf Danish ceramic artists—executions which portray, in an interesting manner, legendary figures and groups expressive of the life of a period. Inspection Cordially Invited 14-16 West 33rd Street, New York | (opposite Waldorf-Astoria) Bernard Shawisms No inan can be a pure specialist with- out being in the strict sense an idiot. Do not give your children moral and religious instructions unless you are quite sure they will not take it too seri- Quatre and Nell Gwynne than of Robes- 4 — pierre ra Queen Mary Tudor. P \ IN THE KRANICH & BACH PIANO Crim do not die by the hands of the law. They die by the hands of other nen, P adds the most important element of perfection that all Assassination on the scaffold is the } piano manufacturershave worked thirty yearsto obtain. worst form of assassination, because ' ‘ ‘ there it is invested with the approval ‘ : Q This marvelous improvement now makes possible of ‘society a longer sustained, much purer and more voice-like It is the deed that teaches, not the h h bi f b b - d { name we give it. Murder and capital tone than has ever before been obtained from an punishment are not opposites that cancel Upright piano. And it keeps the piano in perfect tune a much longer time than any piano without it. one another, but similars that breed their kind @ The Kranich & Bach is the only piano in the world constructed with the “Violyn” plate. EC When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when the tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity. The distinction between Crime and Justice is no greater It is not necessary to replace a guil- An interesting little book describes it fully and will be sent free to those writing for our new catalogue. KRANICH & BACH 233-45 East 23rd Street New York A] COKE CEE EE EEE HIGHEST § FINEST QUALITY FLAVOR RICH MILD AND AND OLD ; MELLOW lotined criminal; it is necessary to re- Mak \ At All place a guillotined social system. human beings it is not worth while to ares Best There are no perfectly honorable men; keep them.—Chicogo Daily Socialist but every true man has one main point . Clubs af henior aid afew aluotonen: What Was the Matter with Meses ? and You cannot believe in honor until you ys Miss Jane, did Moses have the Hotels have achieved it. Better keep yourself after-dinner complaint my papa’s clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world. Miss Jane: Gracious me, Perey! What- co Property, said Proudhon, is theft ever do you mean, my dear? RDIAL FRONSAC This is the only perfect truism that has Perey: Well, it says here the Lord COWIE & CO., Ltd. New York been uttered on the subject gave Moses two tablets.—Lippincott’s. Sole Agents for the U.S. @ good dinner better