Life, 1911-01-05 · page 80 of 104
Life — January 5, 1911 — page 80: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains **primarily advertisements** interspersed with literary content, typical of early 1900s magazine layout. **The cartoons/imagery:** - Top left: "The Champion Batsman"—a simple cherub figure swinging a bat, likely a decorative sports illustration - Top right: The Correja automobile advertisement with racing imagery **The satirical content** appears in "The Craze for Writing About Poe," a brief essay mocking the obsessive scholarly attention to Edgar Allan Poe. The author sardonically compares Poe's weakness for alcohol to judges' fondness for whiskey, then criticizes an English scholar (Ransome) for documenting Poe's drunkenness in Baltimore. The satire suggests that literary critics manufacture scandal around famous writers unnecessarily—and that finding a sober poet would itself be remarkable. "The Lure of the Antique" humorously contrasts the author's envy of retired grocers' tasteless Victorian parlors (with their gaudy furniture and crayon portraits) against refined taste, poking fun at bourgeois aesthetic values. The advertisements for writing paper and automobiles anchor the page's commercial purpose.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
»HE cardinal require- ments of correspond- WS ence stationery are correct form, quality that is impressive, a surface agreeable to write upon. isa perfect fulfillment of these requirements. Stationers will supply it in quantity for crest and monogram stamping, or in convenient papeterie boxes as illustrated above. When you think of writing think of WHITING. WHITING PAPER COMPANY New York Chicago Philadelphia Bostor Mills : Holyoke, Mass. 35 H. P. SPEED RUNABOUT — PRICE $1450 NEVER DEFEATED Has proven its speed by winning every ‘hill climbing event entered in 1910, competing with cars selling up to $5,000, Bridgeport, Conn..... Yale Hill Climb, New Have Ossining, New York iste Port Jefferson, L. I.... Plainfield, N. J. The CORREJA has carned recognition among the foremost cars of its class because of its ability to make speed, its remarkable staying qualities and its rakish, “different” appearance. It is the smartest runabout built. GUARANTEED IN A WAY THAT MEANS SOMETHING CORREJA MOTOR CAR COMPANY 1851 Broadway, New York The Craze fer Writing About Poe Certain manias are characteristic of certain temperaments. Whiskey, for example, has an irresistible fascination for the judicial temperament. It does not necessarily follow that every judge is a drunkard, although I never saw a judge who did not look like a drunk- ard, just as I have never seen a fool who did not look like a poet. My con- cern now is with sober writers. They never know when to stop writing about Poe. The latest is an Englishman, whose critical study emanates from Mitchell Kennerley. Poe prepared to settle at Richmond, Mr. Ransome tells us, but on a journey to New York the author of “The Raven” stopped at Baltimore and drank enough to make further travel impossible. (Here I must pause to point a moral. We are all Poes preparing to settle at the Rich- mond of virtue but on a journey to the New York of temptation we stop at the Baltimore of sin and make further travel impossible.) “ The elec- tions were being fought,” to quote Mr. 80 Ransome further, “and canvassers finding him already drunk kept him so and dragged him from place to place to record his vote for their candidate.” Subsequently Poe was recognized and hurried to the hospital. I quite fail to see why Mr. Ransome “s taken to task for saying that the Baltimoreans found Poe drunk. One reviewer denources this as a libel, Not at all. It suggests that the circum: stance was remarkable. I know a fa- mous poct who can be found sober. Stated thus, the circumstance is made to appear remarkable. It is. The Lure of the Antique The only mortals whose furniture I envy are retired grocers. If ever I accumulate a competence by my efforts to imitate Gertrude Atherton, the re- tired grocer’s style of furniture shall be mine. My stuffy little parlor shall have its bright green carpet on the floor, too, its enlarged crayon portraits of my parents on the walls, its uphol- stered suite of Grand Rapids furniture in horsehair black. The room shall be reserved for great occasions, like wife’s funeral and the visits of win Markham. Such a parlor as the onc I anticipate for my declining years, with its huge family Bible on a (Continued on page 82) For Sate All Dealers. ‘Best Perfumery and comicbooks.com