Life, 1913-09-18 · page 34 of 44
Life — September 18, 1913 — page 34: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page mixes advertisements with satirical editorial content typical of early 20th-century *Life* magazine. The **Velvet tobacco ad** uses a circular design showing a man reading a newspaper, claiming the tobacco won't bite—standard product marketing of the era. The **"Important! We Guess Not!"** section is sharp satire questioning publishers' claims that books are "important." The author argues books offer little practical value—they don't help you fix a tire or build a house, their facts become outdated, and people don't actually enjoy listening to others discuss books. The piece sarcastically asks why books should be allowed to claim importance when food advertisements are now legally restricted from misrepresentation. This critiques both publishing's inflated marketing and the era's new consumer protection laws. The **Civil War veteran anecdote** is gentle humor: an old soldier mentions being grazed by a bullet; his great-grandson replies there's not much grazing left on his now-bald head—a joke about aging. The remaining content includes household appliance advertisements (dishwasher, garbage receiver) and a novel advertisement for Rex Beach's *The Iron Trail*.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE SMOOTHEST TOBACCO This rich Old Burley has been well aged — a fine flavor and smoke smoothness that will win you! IO¢TINS Handy5¢| One pandas humidor jars TOBAcCo ———— ST emBS semen Underground Garbage Receiver | Wen OCLs NO FLIES. NO LITTER. NO ODORS. Opens with tie foot; cloves itself. Clean and sanitary, Sold divect fom baer, 1@ Farrar St.. Lynn, Masa, SE Sisnwasier FREE) FOR THIRTY DAYS | This is the Kitchenette Family Dishwasher—the machine | that jwill wash and sterilize the dishes fused by any family in a fe utes. No need to put your hands i water Wy ret Rhehecte Disha ot fot popu Ue tee 9 dae hen it a ne eush damount ov fay om fat ents payeces <n yom our cane of eng payment plas. Te empiet b perrcare of jour tre raters Important! We Guess Not! Imrortaxt Books—From a fall adver- fisement, MPORTANT for what? To make you feel better natured when you come down to breakfast, to improve your manners or add anything to your will power? Important because they increase your expertness in any particular di- rection? After reading them can you fut on a tire with any greater facility, or build a house more rapidly, or make an after-dinner speech with more ability? Are they important because they add to the stock of your knowledge? And if so, can you predict to any degree of certainty when the facts which they present will be overthrown? Willi they add anything to your culture, and if so, how important is the stock of cul- ture which you possess that it should be added unto? Are they important because by knowing about them you have ex- tended the limits of your conversa- tional powers, and if so, who will listen to you when you have finished? Did you ever find anybody in all of your experience who liked to have you talk to them about the contents of a book you have just read? Possibly they are important because they may help you in the selection of a wife, the choice of a business, the companionship of others or the in- crease of your own material posses- sions. Do you really believe that? Recently new laws have been made which forbid the misrepresentation of an article advertised; particularly re- lating to food. Why not to books? Why should publishers be permitted to state that any book is important when it isn’t; when the very nature of life, and the processes that go to make it, make such a thing possible? Avroros of the ravages that time has made in the faces and forms of the veterans of the civil war, Walter S. Morton, president general of the Union Society, said at a dinner in New York: “A> veteran, talking to his great- grandson, a little lad of eight or nine years, remarked : “*Nearly a generation and a half ago my head was grazed by a bullet at the hattle of Chickamauga.’ “The little boy looked at the old man’s head thoughtfully and said: “There isn’t. much grazing there now, is there, sir?’” —Chicago Record-Herald, Just Beach’s Out THE IRON TRAIL ——a By the Author of “The Ne'er-Do-Well,”” “The Spoilers” NEW kind of interest springs up from its pages, arousing the enthu- siasm of the woman who reads. Here is, of course, the good story which she de- mands—and something more. This is romance of a real kind—and a real Rex Beach Alaska story of a man-to-man struggle where the public welfare is at stake, $1.35 net & BR by If comicbooks.com