Life, 1913-09-04 · page 10 of 40
Life — September 4, 1913 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct pieces: **"The Roof Garden"** (top): A romantic poem by Charles Hanson Towne celebrating urban escape—a couple finding paradise on a rooftop garden above the city's heat and crowds. **"Perhaps a Little Later"** (right column): An editorial commentary mocking medical journals' optimistic claims about eliminating diphtheria through antitoxin, quoting the American Medical Association's assertion that prevention "is not a practical success because the antitoxin is eliminated too rapidly." It's satirizing the gap between medical optimism and actual results. **"Militant Delegate" cartoon** (bottom left): Shows suffragettes threatening theater destruction unless "suffragette chorus girls" are employed. This references the women's suffrage movement and militant tactics used to pressure institutions. The cartoon satirizes their aggressive demands. **"Leisure"** (right): An essay on leisure's intangible nature and how it's become commercialized—millionaires accumulate moments then pay to escape them.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SEPRIE- The Roof Garden N the heavy Summer evenings, when the town is thick with heat, \\ You and I climb from our attic high above the thundering ) street, Where a little garden waits us nave underneath the starlit skies, And we whisper, “Even here, love, we have made a paradise!” Yes, we two have built an Eden out of grimy chimney-pots ; What small miracles of wonder in our thrifty flower-plots! Red geraniums, flaming poppies, vines and ferns, and roses, too, All the stolen green of Summer blooming here for me and you! Vainly does the country call us on warm Sunday after- noons; Here upon the city’s bosom we could spend eternal Junes, Quiet all around us, dearest, since the weary ones must flee Who have never yet created their own joys, like you and me, They are dullards who would perish in a sweltering, crowded train; You and I have learned to cherish this spot high above the pain And the anguish of the city when the breathless night comes down Like a garment falling softly on the feverish old town. This is heaven—close to heaven; and we watch the red moon rise Like a disc of burnished metal in the star-bejeweled skies ; And we pity all the seething, rushing, pushing, panting crowds Who could find, if they but sought it, bliss like ours be- neath the clouds. Charles Hanson Towne, Perhaps a Little Later PEAKING of diphtheria, the Journal of the American Medical Association recently had the temerity to as- sert that: “Our present methods of prevention of diph- theria are admittedly far from satisfactory.” This will be news to some credulous people who have been reading from time to time the glowing reports from doctors that the danger from diphtheria had all been eliminated. But the Journal is even more explicit. It continues: “But the use of diphtheria antitoxin for pre- ventive purposes is not a practical success because the antitoxin is eliminated too rapidly.” All of which reminds us of Pope's famous line: “Man never is but always to be blest.” Leisure | EISURE is the thing which everybody wants more than anything else, but when it is obtained no one knows quite what to do with it, Leisure, in truth, is -an impalpable substance. It is not visible to the eye, neither can it be handled. You can- not send a package of leisure by parcel post. If you try to divide it with any- one you invariably lose it. Often you lose your health getting it, and then someone grabs it away from you. Leisure is not for sale in any market place. Some have thought they could buy it in Wall Street, but their success has not been recorded anywhere except in the obituary column. Millionaires accumulate a vast quan- tity of moments of leisure, and then pay good money to get rid of them. Leisure at one time was applied to young children, it being thought a good preparation for their after life; it has now, however, been superseded Militant Delegate: UNLESS YOU AGREE TO EMPLOY ONLY OUR SUFFRAGETTE CHORUS GIRLS, WE WILL BLOW UP YOUR OLD THEATER. by supervised playgrounds and cotton mills. comicbooks.com