Life, 1913-05-29 · page 40 of 44
Life — May 29, 1913 — page 40: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page mixes advertisements with literary promotion, typical of early 20th-century magazines. The "Patent Home" section is satirical commentary on American technological optimism—it mockingly envisions a fully automated future home where beds make themselves, meals cook automatically, and even "family prayers" play via phonograph while funerals are handled by "pressing a button." The satire targets both utopian faith in invention and anxieties about servants and domestic labor disappearing. The page primarily advertises Scribner's Magazine's current serialized fiction: Edith Wharton's *The Custom of the Country* (about social climbing and American wealth) and John Galsworthy's *The Dark Flower* (a romantic story). Side advertisements promote Long Island vacations and Craven Mixture tobacco. The theatrical quote critiquing theater's discomforts adds a secondary satirical note about entertainment itself being uncomfortable despite its cost.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
in New "York City. Delightful places to spend a vacation among ‘ high wooded hills over= vine 70 looking Sound and ba; pert, on the North Shore; in RESORTS shows the ican Over 300 resorts to choose from with prices to fit any pocketbook. IDEAL_ CONDITIONS FOR FISHING, ING, SURF AND STILL WATER BATHING, AND TENNIS. The Theatre A theatre is so far from being a pleasant or even a comfortable place that only by making us forget ourselves can it prevent us from realizing its incon- veniences. A play that docs not do this for the pleasure-secker allows him to discover that he has chosen a disagree- able and expensive way of spending his evening.—" Three Plays for Puritans,” by George Bernard Shaw. Chicago and New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co. THE THIRD EARL OF CRAVEN Inventor of the Pinest Smoking Tobacco in the World Craven Mixture (Made in England) What I call the “Arcadia” in “My Lady Nicotine” is the Craven Mixture and no other. J. Af, BARRIB This famous mixture has the largest sale of any high class smoking tobacco in the world. If your deater cannot supply you at once, send 30 cents for 1} oF. oF 60 cents for 3 02, sealed tia, especially Imported for fastidious smokers, Packed two ways, Loose or in Cartridgetorm for Baron Pipe Filler. . S. AGENTS OF CARRERAS, Ltd. 119 West 23d Street New York City The Patent Home HE number of patents issued last year was greatly in excess of all other years. And yet nobody in all inventive America has patented a home. We must all live. The old home is now a back number. It is bound in time to be succeeded by the patent home. Hasten the day. The patent home will have all its beds made up automatically. It will cook its own meals, keep itself dusted, decorated and disinfected. It will heat the baby’s milk at all hours of the night and will be servantless. All the pictures will be changed at regular intervals and new furniture will automatically replace the old. Family prayers will be provided by phonograph, and births, weddings and funcrals will be covered by pressing a button. THE TWO GREAT STORIES OF THE YEAR ARE IN SCRIBNER’S MAGAZINE EDITH WHARTON’S THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY A Story of American Social Life It is seldom that an author makes her characters as real as does Mrs. Whar- ton in ‘“‘The Custom of the Country.” Undine Spragg, the social climber; her father, Abner E. Spragg, with some old-fashioned prejudices but no business scruples; Mrs. Spragg—* Leota B.”; Elmer E. Moffatt, the plunger; Mrs. Heeny, the gossiping manicure; Claud Walsingham Popple, the fashionable portrait painter; Peter Van Degen, the rich man about town, with whom Undine has an adventure, and Ralph Marvell, the scion of an old Washington Square family, who married Undine — are as living as if we had seen them in a play. THE BEST LOVE STORY JOHN GALSWORTHY’S THE DARK FLOWER (The Love Life of a Man) It is a story of sentiment, of ideals, written in a poetic vein and with an in- timate appeal to all mankind, to all who have ever loved or known the influence of love. If you will read the first chapters in the April number you will be con- vinced that it is a story you must read, one that will touch the hearts, appeal to the sympathies of old and young alike. You will certainly want to read Short Stories by » Mary R. S. Andrews, author of ‘‘The Perfect Tribute”; Ernest Thompson Seton, James B. Connolly, Thomas Nelson Page, and other famous writers of fiction SPECIAL: A Reprint of the earlier chapters of Mrs. Wharton’s OE EUR ® story will be sent. free to any one upon request 00 A YEAR. 25 CENTS A NUMBE! comicbooks.com