Life, 1912-11-07 · page 8 of 60
Life — November 7, 1912 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising and light humor**, not political satire. The left side features travel advertisements for the Northern Pacific Railway (promoting scenic Pacific Northwest routes) and Cunard cruise lines (luxury voyages to Mediterranean destinations). The center contains a poem titled **"De Gustibus"** (Latin: "About Taste") by St. John Hawkin, satirizing wealthy tourists. The poem mocks adventurous travelers who annually risk mountain climbing and dangerous Alpine expeditions, questioning why they endure such hardship when comfortable English countryside exists. The satire targets the leisure class's fashionable obsession with extreme tourism. The right side shows two framed illustrations with captions "Lend a Hand" and "Long Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder"—sentimental genre scenes typical of Life magazine's visual humor. Overall, this is consumer-oriented magazine content mixing travel marketing with gentle social commentary about upper-class tourist culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
cp) ey eg To or From the Pacific Coast Enhance your trip a hundred-fold by trav- eling the trail of Lewis & Clark through the Storied Nuovthwest See thisI_ nd of Fruit and Farms— and of a thou- sand & nic Surprises. See Gl cial Peaks that vie viich the Alps—Vine- yards like those of Sunny France—Rivers that rival the Rhine. The Northern Pacific Railway Stretches between the Great Lakes and North Pacific Coast, with four daily through electric- lighted trains each way. Write for booklet shown above and other free literature about the Scenic North- : Seas june 15 to Sept. 15. nclose 6 cents A, M. CLELAND General Passenger Agent ST. PAUL, MINN. Panama-Pacific Expo. San Francia Feb.-Dec. 1915, Tam an unadventurous man, And always go upon the plan Of shunning danger where I can, And so I fail to understand Why every year a stalwart band Of tourists go to Switzerland, And spend their time for several weeks, With quaking hearts and pallid cheeks, Scaling abrupt and windy peaks. In fact, I'm old enough to find Climbing of almost any kind Is very little to my mind. A mountain summit white with snow Is an attractive sight, I know, But why not sce it from below? Why leave the hospitable plain And scale Mont Blane with toil and pain Merely to scramble down again? Some men pretend they think it bliss To clamber up a precipice Or dangle over an abyss, To crawl along a mountain side, Supported by a rope that's tied —Not too sccurcly—to a guide; But such pretenses, it is clear, In the aspiring mountaineer | Are usually insincere. And many a climber, I'll be bound, Whom scarped and icy crags surround, Wishes himself on level ground, So I, for one, do not propose To cool my comfortable tocs In regions of perpetual snows. As long as I can take my ease, Fanned by a soothing southern breeze, Under the shade of English trees. And any one who leaves my share Of English fields and English air May take the Alps for aught I care! —St. John Hankin, (Reprinted from “A Humorous An- thology,” through the courtesy of Bren- tano’s—publishers of the book.) Mecarnoxist (on sightseeing auto) : This is Bunker Hill. Gotrixnc Briton: Ah, that was a bunker, to be sure !—Boston Transcript. A CUNARD CRUISE DEPARTMENT 21 State St., New York Unsurpassed Luxury and Comfort Madeira, Gibraltar, Algiers “LACONIA” Nov. 9, Jan. 4 “FRANCONIA” Nov. 28, Jan. 18 “CARONIA” Jan. 30, Mar. 15 LA CARTE WITHOUT CHARGE — STOPOVERS PERMITTED For Particulars apply to SS * LEND A HAND Facsimi By Walter Tittle in color Mounted for framing, 12 x 16 in, Price soc. Cope. Tile Pub. Co, dae cael LONG DISTANCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER Faesimile in color By C. Cotes Phillips 2x 16in, Mounted for framing, Price soc. LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY 17 West 31 Street, New York comicbookeo