Life, 1913-09-04 · page 33 of 40
Life — September 4, 1913 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains satirical commentary on "Sport" by Life magazine's editorial voice. The piece humorously defines sport broadly—including "poker and matrimony"—then critiques modern sports as commercialized spectacles. The joke is that kissing isn't a sport because it's "almost always a sure thing" (unlike competitive activities), while Wall Street trading similarly lacks struggle. The satire mocks how sports institutions now primarily serve to "produce gate receipts" rather than provide genuine diversion. A small cartoon titled "Baseball Term: Holding Down Third" appears to make a baseball joke, though details are unclear from the image quality. The page is dominated by period advertising: Aladdin kit homes promising savings through direct-mail construction, and Austro-American cruise lines offering Mediterranean voyages. These ads reflect early 20th-century American consumer capitalism—mail-order homes and leisure travel as accessible luxuries.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“EEE A Better Home for Less Money \ If you contemplate '. building, the Aladdi: catalogue will interest ° che immensely, it shows you how to save Yo to Ya on the building cost of the house you want. Ie will explain ta detail the modern way in which lumber for Aladdin houses is cut to exact size in the mills—how the house is shipped to youlike ‘scraper, every piece fumbered’ and ready to. be erected instantly. Everything furnished except masonry. Look at these 5 ‘They seem almost unbelievable until you understand how we cut out the wholeuler, jobber, retail and lumber dealer, archi tect and contractor. Catalogue contains dozens of large and email houses, ( Sungate ‘summer cotta: Brrulings roosts to 163, 2 rooms to 12 rooms Geeta, 39935 shustrated. Prices $125 and up. Send today for catalog 100 North American Construction 420 sladdte Avena, 7, Misbtenn ate SERS oreiet Meets Oo CPR huagy Torctn Ot Sport PORT is divided into many kinds. Among others may be mentioned baseball, football, poker and matrimony. . Sport is founded on a struggle of some sort. That is the reason why kissing is not a sport, because it is almost always a sure thing. Buying and selling in Wall Street is not a sport for the same reason. Sport supports a great many different institutions. Among others may be mentioned excursion trains, race tracks, gambling hells and colleges. There are two kinds of sports, namely, indoor and outdoor, Outdoor sports include church picnics, automobiling, acroplaning and summer love-making. Indoor sports include roulette, bridge, turkey-trotting and housecleaning. A man who stays home and helps his wife clean house is not only a sport, but a martyr and hero combined. Sport was invented to divert the mind—when there were minds. Now it is used to kill time and produce gate receipts. — KA OS he vs 230. OSS BASEBALL TERM HOLDING DOWN THIRD As people read nothing in these days that is more than forty-eight hours old, 1 am daily admonished that allusions, the most obvious, to anything in the rear of our own times need explanation. —De Quincey. U 0-AMERICAN LINE’ ropean Trips for the Ror Season The Quiet Southern Track to Algiers, North Africa and the classic sunny south in the Mediterranean & Adriatic. Regular Stope at Algiers (North Africa.) Naples (Italy,) Patras Seve octave come the ocean, and at dare Sight-Seeing trips in every port. Free stopovers. Place, N.Y. comicbooks.com