Life, 1911-04-06 · page 70 of 76
Life — April 6, 1911 — page 70: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous editorial announcement, not political satire. Life magazine is promoting an upcoming "Burglar's Number" (a themed issue) with tongue-in-cheek secrecy—readers should ask newsdealers for "that number" without explanation, as if requesting something illicit. The main text humorously recounts Life's embarrassing failure at publishing a "time table" showing when the magazine would be available in different cities. They intended to locate it precisely but discovered their own incompetence when distributors, amused by the announcement, began delivering copies *earlier* than scheduled—including in San Francisco, where the magazine kept arriving a day sooner each week. The cartoons show a burglar character (left) and a jovial figure (right), fitting the "burglar" theme. The satire targets Life's own editorial pretensions: they thought they could control distribution logistics but got humiliated by their distributors' practical jokes and competitive zeal.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Do You Burgle? Correct Methods of Burgling, including all the latest styles, will be presented in the next or Burglar’s Number of LIFE. At high noon, next Tuesday, regardless of wind or weather, you have but to step up to your favorite newsdealer, and without mentioning any names, you have but to ask for ‘““That Number’”’ He will understand. Any one, in these days, who asks any newsdealer anywhere for “that number” always receives as his reward the latest number of LIFE. More About LIFE’S Time Table This is a tale of woe. When we started out, several weeks ago, to let COMING our readers know the exact hour in which they could buy LIFE in every city in the United States, we were not quite sure about it ourselves. April 20, Dog Number Our object in announcing LIFE’S time table was to find this out. “27, Breadwinner’s We are gradually learning. May 4, Commuter's We knew when the shipments were made from New York, but as to “11, Joy Rider's the exact time when they arrived at their various destinations was a ques- “18, Celestial tion. Things began to happen right off. In the first place, many of our friends didn’t like it because we failed to mention their particular town, ignoring the fact that it was impossible to put in one page all the principal cities in the land. In the second place, our friends who were delivering the paper throughout the country thought they would play a joke on us, sc they began making their deliveries earlier. The result was amusing. We began, for example, with the announcement that you could buy LIFE in San Francisco on Friday morning. Then we learned that you could really buy it there on Thursday. Then the news came that it was on sale there on Wednesday. And now, will you believe it? you can actually buy it there on Tuesday. The printer got interested and got some faster pr He wanted to prove apparently that we didn't know much— a thing which we ourselves have suspected for some time. The question now is, Who has accomplished this remarkable shorten- ing in time? Weare too modest to think that, in the beginning, by calling attention to the matter, we were the humble instruments. We are willing to give the credit of this great achievement to almost anyone. Meanwhile, LIFE is now on sale over large portions of the country from two to three days earlier than when we first began our mendacious time table. Subscription $5.00 Canadian $5.52 Foreign $6.04