Life — September 14, 1911 — page 28: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Life’s realized fully the difficulty of our job, as we sped along in our in- terviewing biplane. Our task was not only to introduce Mr. Lutz, but to ex- plain him, to tell who he is and what he docs, and the way he docs it. Was such a thing possible? We did not know. “Do you think that such a thing is possible?” we asked of the tall, hand- some gentleman who came forward and ceted us. “T don't know,” he replied. “I have no difficulty in explaining myself—to myself, of course. But to others?" We seated ourselves deferentially. “Of course,” we began, “the readers of Ltr know in a way that you are the artist who draws those penetrating little initial pictures which go so to illy- minate the text—to start it off right, as it were; but to explain that far beyond this is a philosopher, a scientist, a man of method, there’s the rub! Why, you have reduced humor— “It is quite simple,” he replied quite modestly, holding up some colored sheets of paper. “You see, for keeping my ideas on file I have a system. These slips contain various ideas, and for each class of ideas I have a color—white for general, pink for animals, green for puns, brown for decorations, blue for children, and so on.” We became profoundly interested Family *LIFE- Album Here was the art of humor reduced to a science. “And you were born?" we asked gently. “In Philadelphia.” hat explained much. — Benjamin Franklin, if not born there, did his work there, and Mr. Lutz was applying to humor the Franklin method of classi- fication. “What did you do at first?” “Oh, I studied art in a certain class with four others, but I was the only one that went wrong. spectable—architects and dign fessors of drawing. I was a failure from the start. I took to comic drawing, which every teacher of drawing regards as a wicked joke on humanit “How did you acquire your—archi- techtonic, we believe that is the word whatever it means?” “T began by reading Grant Allen's scientific works. Oh, I had a narrow escape from being a scientist. I. still keep at it in a way. I am engaged in the most monumental work of the age, and one which I firmly believe will be of the greatest benefit to the human race It is a guide for editors and others, means of which you may tell positively and at all times, regardless of digest temperament or temperature, just wher a thing is funny.” “Will you put us down as the first subscriber? That is something that we have long wanted to know.” Small Pay Ww sympathize heartily with that Rev. Mr. Hull of Wisconsin, who returned three dollars for making a prayer in the State Senate on the ground that it had not done any good. But we don’t agree with him about returning the moncy. He ought really to have charged double rates. We can conceive of no harder job than praying for a State Senate. The act in itself should not be measured by results—no sane person would expect any results— Lut it should be measured by the amount of discomfort involved and the sacrifice to one's feelings and dignity. We do not believe that any man can pray for a State Senate regularly and not come off worse for it. It is bound to affcet one’s character. It is like working in a subway or a nine. It ought to be paid for at extra rates HYLOCK would cut a poor figure these days. It takes considerably more than a pound of flesh to satisfy our money Mrs, Rabbit: 11's PERFECTLY WONDERFUL, MR. CENTIPEDE, THAT YOU CAN coMt- comicbooks -co