Life, 1913-01-02 · page 38 of 44
Life — January 2, 1913 — page 38: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page celebrates **Life's 30th anniversary** with a birthday poem by Henry Waldorf Francis. The poem humorously contrasts Life's enduring youth and wit with human aging—wishing the magazine could remain perpetually young while people inevitably grow old and regret their birthdays. The main article, "Faithless Hope," critiques newspaper reform movements. The author argues that while people demand better newspapers, they simultaneously want sensationalism—gossip about socialites, detailed Roosevelt coverage, and entertainment disguised as news. Reform-minded editors idealizing past journalists like Horace Greeley ignore that those figures were equally criticized in their own time. The piece suggests newspapers simply reflect public demand for trivial content over substantive journalism, making meaningful improvement impossible. The advertisements (Gibson whiskey, shaving brushes, Mothersill's seasickness remedy) are period-typical commercial content.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Birthdays Life’s Thirtieth Anniversary More fortunate than I at birth, You made an instant hit, And ever since you've proved your worth With e’er increasing wit; And now you're thirty! I wish I Might places change with you, Cast off the years and time defy, And be but thirty, too! You're old as publications go, Few reach your age, I vow, But you'll be young, all of us know, A hundred years from now! Ah, if the same could but be true With us whom you delight, We would not ev'ry birthday view With more and more affright! When one is seventeen he longs To reach to man’s estate, Majority he greets with songs, And feels proud and elate; But later when Time’s on him told And he nears the last rung, He wishes people were born old, And steadily grew young! These birthdays! When a fellow’s past His youth and middle age, And feels each one may be his last And take him off the stage, Ah, then they come on flying feet, And filled are with regret— Don’t me with birthday wishes greet, I would my age forget! Henry Waldorf Francis. (Chi MARK HAVIN that Never Fails Well lathered Amanis more than half shaved SHAVING BRUSHES make perfect lather and put it as it should be, where it should be. Re- sult: A perfect shave. DEMAND -SET BRUSHES PRICES BELOW COMPETITION JOHN L.WHITING -J. J. ADAMS CO. BOSTON, U.S.A. Drh Masaactrrs fr Over 180 Yaar an the Largs in the Word ‘The Gitson Distilling Company. Philadelphia. Pa. \CAN-SET Faithless Hope The effort to find out what is the matter with our newspapers is assured- ly entertaining. Every one who is trying to get us better newspapers has our best wishes and our godspeeds, ut, by no means, our unalloyed faith in a satisfactory result It would be beautiful if, in this nation that thinks of nothing but money and clothes and power and show, we had newspapers that thought of something else, but isn’t it too much to expect prior to the millennium? The suspicion arises that, for one thing, our goodly reformers start wrong. They long for the pristine days and the pristine editors. They forget that, no matter how fair and glamorous a name may be brought forward as a model for our latter-day tribunes—be it Greeley or Dana or Bennett or whoever—he was consid- ered pretty poor picking by many of his contemporaries. These historical per- sonages, now long accepted at the value put upon them by their friends, may yet be trotted forth once too often, and some revolutionary historian, like Ferrero, will set himself the task of proving that they were all ordinary mortals like the rest of us, or at least not so violently extraordinary as to warrant us in apotheosizing them. In the meantime the papers have to come out every day. No matter whether the editors have ideas or not, they must express opinions in time to catch the editions. The defense of the newspapers that the people demand what they are geiting is trite but true. Those who wonder what kind of shoe- strings the Countess of Muddlehead wore at the ball of the Duke de Non- compos must be given the information regardless of the cable tolls. Those who want to read a half dozen columns about Roosevelt every day must be supplied. Those who want their news served as fiction or their fiction served as news cannot be overlooked. EO. J. OTHERSILL'S, after thorough tests, is now officially adopted by practically all the Great Lakes and York Steamship Companies running south and m Transatlantic lines. Three years ago Mr. Mothersill gave a personal stration of his remedy on the English Channel, Irish S the Baltic, and received unqualified endorsement from leading papers and such people as Bishop Taylor Smith, Lord North- cliff, and hosts of doctors, bankers and professional men. Letters from personages of internationa | renow: all know—together with much valuable information, are con- tained in an attractive booklet which will be sent free upoo receipt of your name and address. Mothersill’s is guaranteed not to contain cocaine, morphine, opium, chloral, or any coal-tar products. A soc box is sufficient for twenty-four hours; $1.00 box for a Transatlantic voyast. Your druggist keeps Mothersill’s or will obtain it for you from his wholesaler. If you have any trouble getting the genuine. send direct to the Mothersill Remedy Co., 405 Scherer Blde.. Detroit, Mich. Also at to St. Bride St.,/ London; Montreal, New York, Paris, Milan, Hamburg. comicbooks.com