Life, 1911-10-12 · page 4 of 48
Life — October 12, 1911 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily a **subscription advertisement** for Life magazine's Boston edition, using humor to mock intellectualism and encourage subscriptions. The ad features two illustrated figures—a seated woman surrounded by books and a standing man in colonial-era dress with a small dog. The text satirizes Boston's reputation for intellectual pretension, mocking "intellectual prigs" and "professors of transcendent philosophy" while claiming Life will "correct all of your hitherto unsuspected prejudices." The humor relies on **Boston stereotypes**: the city was historically associated with elite academia, transcendentalism, and cultural superiority. The colonial figure likely references Boston's historical importance. The ad offers a subscription for one dollar for three months, positioning Life as a corrective to Boston's perceived stuffiness—essentially selling irreverent satire as an antidote to the city's self-regard.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
BOSTON NUMBER NEXT WEEK Are you an intellectual prig? Or are you a modest, unassuming professor of transcendent philosophy? Or are you a mild and inoffensive aggregation of acute mental perceptions? Or don’t you know anything? Have you through long successive years acquired an inexhaustible ignorance? No matter. Next week's LIFE will correct all of your hitherto unsuspected prejudices and put you square with the world. Friends, Humans and Bostonians! Lend us your ears. We come to resurrect Boston, not to praise it. The evil that men do is because they did not think in time to become regular subscribers to LIFE,—thereby placing themselves in harmony with the universe. Only one dollar for three months. The attached coupon explains everything. Enclosed find one dollar (Can- adian $1.13, Pte $1.26). > WINNE Sen IFE for THE WINNER On all News-stands three months to of LI Picture Contest will be an- Every Tuesday nounced in our next issue. If not a Ten C regular subscriber order your copy ahead. en Cents Open only to new subscribers; no subscription renewed at this rate, Subscription $5.00 This offer is net. Canadian ....5.52 Foreign. — cen Life, 17 West 31, N. Y. City comicbookke ! a