Life, 1913-07-24 · page 36 of 40
Life — July 24, 1913 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines editorial commentary on oratory with advertising and magazine promotion. **Main Essay on Oratory:** The unsigned piece cynically argues that great oratory isn't intellectually improving but rather manipulative entertainment. It claims successful speakers are "vaudeville performers who uses words for scenery"—they appeal to audiences' combined emotions rather than their reasoning. The author suggests oratory actually makes practitioners "progressively unintelligent" through a law of compensation, and that audiences mistake emotional manipulation for intellectual gain. **Advertisements & Promotion:** The page features ads for Old Overholt Rye whiskey (emphasizing century-old reputation) and promotion for The Century magazine's August issue, highlighting serialized fiction and articles on international topics. **Cartoon/Anecdote:** A brief joke about a conductor questioning a woman's claim that her child is under three—implying the child looks older due to hardship—provides light humor typical of the era's magazine filler. The overall tone reflects Progressive Era skepticism about public manipulation and rhetorical excess.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIFE: Oratory (One a successful orator be intelli- gent and keep it up? Opinions differ. The tendency of oratory to make those who indulge in it more progressively unintelligent is no acci- dent. There is always a law of com- pensation working somewhere. It is usual to assume that a successful speech is something intellectual—some- thing which, if it does not actually make people think, moves them to think, and is supposed to have the same kind of effect as the reading of a good book, or, in fact, as doing anything mentally improving. Great oratory consists solely in be- ing able to hit upon the combined feelings of a number of people in such a way that they are all aroused to- gether. A great orator is a vaudeville performer who uses words for scenery. When he has finished his work of de- ceiving you into the belief that you have been acquiring something men- «The White Linen Nurse was so tired that her noble expression ached.”” THE AUGUST CENTURY will have the first chapters (a long instal- ment) of “The White Linen Nurse,” the new novel by Eleanor Hallowell Abbott, author of “Molly Make-Believe,”—the most auda- ciously brilliant fiction feature of the year. Among other features in the August Century THE FIRST VOYAGE OVER By THEODORE DREISER, author of “Jennie Gerhardt,” etc. The observations and impressions of a naively sophisticated traveler at forty. IF CANADA WERE TO AN- NEX THE UNITED STATES By JAMES DAVENPORT WHELP- LEY, an authority on trade. The August Century will be for sale on all news-stands July 22, BRITISH UNCOMMUNICA- TIVENESS By A.C. BENSON, author of “From a College Window.” AMERICAN MAKERS OF THE NEW JAPAN By WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIs, author of “The Japanese Nation ir Evolution.” Price 35 cents | Old Overholt Rye | “Same for 100 Years"’ "Mellow as old recollections; fra- grant as the rose of yesterday." The whiskey that has retained its reputation for over a century. Aged in wood and bottled in bond. A. Overholt & Co, Pitabursh. Pa. tally useful, then you hear people say: “Wasn't he awfully good? I think he was perfectly splendid! I wouldn't have missed it for anything!” Coxpuctor: Madam, that child looks older than three years. Morner: Yes, indeed he docs, con- ductor. That child has had a lot of trouble.—Everybody's. comicbooks.com