Life, 1912-11-14 · page 13 of 44
Life — November 14, 1912 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct pieces: **The Top Illustration**: A densely packed satirical drawing showing numerous figures in top hats at what appears to be a crowded social gathering or parade. The caption "Give the Horse a Show" suggests mockery of ostentatious displays or performative spectacle among the wealthy elite. **"Journalism" Article**: Critiques newspapers' editorial standards, arguing they prioritize entertainment over truth-telling. It suggests newspapers deliberately avoid publishing truthful but unsexy content because "it is so much easier and so much better business to be interesting." **"Fashion's Latest"**: A brief satirical dialogue mocking Parisian fashion trends (women crawling to develop their figures), followed by a domestic cartoon about remembering to feed the bird-man before school. The overall page satirizes superficiality in American culture—media sensationalism and fashion vanity.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
GIVE THE HORSE A SHOW Journalism great time down in Washing- ton trying to straighten out the constitutionality of HEY have been having the new newspaper bill. This bill, in effect, makes it im- perative that newspapers should publish the names of their stockholders, their circulation, and also define their advertising notices. What is really needed, however, is some kind of a law by which, when you read a newspaper, you can tell what articles are true and what are not. This is, of course, assuming that newspapers sometimes publish the truth. If, when we pick up a paper, the truthful state- ments in it had been passed upon by a competent com- mission it might save a great deal of trouble and time. The objection to this scheme is that it would take a long time to educate the reading public to believe that the news- Papers ever publish anything true. Besides, it is a great question as to whether the reading public wishes to know the truth. Probably not. It requires a great deal of conscientious work, and con- siderable artistic ability (not to say genius) to make the truth interesting. Probably it would be impossible to do this in a newspaper office in the few hours’ time before going to press. That is the reason why newspapers care so little about publishing the truth. It is much casie: and so much better business to be interesting. Fashion's Latest “QOME of the most fashionable ladies in Paris have taken to crawling on their hands and knees to de- velop their figures. “Establishing an All-Four Hundred set, so to speak.” ADGE: Why don't you think before you speak, d Marjorie: If I did that I wouldn't have time to say half what I wanted. “DON'T FORGET TO FEED THE BIRD-MAN BEFORE YOU GO TO scitooL, JANE!” comicbooks.com