Life, 1913-09-18 · page 41 of 44
Life — September 18, 1913 — page 41: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines advertisements with editorial content promoting the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. The main article, "The Merger of East and West," uses Rudyard Kipling's famous poem to argue that the telephone unites a divided nation. It draws a parallel between Kipling's story of an English colonial and Indian bandit who overcome their differences, and America's regional divisions. Before the telephone, the article claims, lack of direct communication kept "people of the various sections separated and apart." The Bell System, with 7.5 million telephones connecting east and west, is presented as creating national unity and patriotism among 27 million daily users. The surrounding advertisements (Waterbury Cigarettes, V-ALL-NO mints) are typical period marketing, emphasizing personalized luxury goods for the "select trade." The article essentially functions as corporate propaganda, portraying the telephone monopoly as a force for national cohesion and social progress—a common early 20th-century promotional strategy.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Waterbury Cigarette Company now is prepared to supply, at $2.00 the hundred, Per- sonal Cigarettes of a grade that is made possible at this price only by this company’s experience in and facilities for catering to a very select trade. These PERSONAL CIGARETTES will be skillfully blended, to suit your taste, of tobacco certified to be true Turkish tobace ally grown in Turkey and cured in Egypt, which is healthfully free from heavy nicotine and all impurities and adulterants. To many the deli- cacy, sweetness and fragrance of, these cigarettes will be a revelation, and to make it easy for all to learn their charm, ‘the “Waterbury Cigarette Com: pany will send postpaid A Trial Box of 5O for $1.00 Each of these trial cigarettes will, if desired, be marked with one initial—presumably the initial of your family name. Write initial plainly. State preference as to mild, medium or strong blend. Also preference as to tip—cork, gold or plain. The dollar bill you enclose will be refunded at once if you are dissatisfied, And you need not bother about returning any of the cigarettes. When you order in quantities of soo, your cigar. ettes will, without extra charge, be marked with your full’ initials, your monogram, crest or any other de SEN x REQUEST=A booklet wing abut the mang fraternities, ete, a8. well a3 fot fod Sind also listing’ some of the Waterbury Cigarette Company's very special beads. Waterbury Cigarette Co., 500 Fith Ave., New York City Cigarettes of the Waterbury standard are on salc where the character of the, patronage justifies it You ask simply for the Waterbury An Extreme View? S it not preposterous that children and heirs, and even unborn grandchildren, of a Marshall Field or a Vanderbilt, should be thought to possess a hereditary claim to do what they please with the great fortune, or to hold it at all as their own? The upkeep of a single big yacht means as much as the total savings of several thousand average men, The heirs have done nothing for human so- ciety, which is generous with them, if it allows them a handsome competence for two or three generations. So far as the fortune has become a trust, the heirs are no more likely to be the suitable persons to administer it than any one else. Neither is it generally for their good to possess it. It is only the good nature, or the negligence of the people, that al- lows an arbitrary system of laws to favor the inheritance of unprecedented arti- ficial fortunes.—From the “ Burden of Poverty,” by C. F. Dole (W. B, Huebsch). = V-ALL-NO * AFTER DINNER MINT Adelicious creamy candy with a flavor all its own. V-ALL- A AFTER DINNER MINT Sold in tin boxes only —never in bulk. _ The Merger of East and West “But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth!’” | In the “Ballad of East and West,” Kipling tells the story of an Indian border bandit pursued to his hiding place in the hills by an Englis colonel’s son. These men were of different races and represented widely differ- ent ideas of life. But, as they came face to face, each found in the other elements of character which made them friends. In this country, before the days of the telephone, infrequent and in- direct communication tended to keep the people of the various sections separated and apart. —KIPLING, The telephone, by making com- munication quick and direct, has been a great cementing force. It has . broken down the barriers of distance. It has made us a homogeneous people. The Bell System, with its 7,500,000 telephones connecting the east and the west, the north and the south makes one great neighborhood of the whole country. It brings us together 27,000,000 times a day, and thus develops our common interests, facilitates our com- mercial dealings and promotes the patriotism of the people. AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY AND ASSOCIATED COMPANIES One ‘System Universal Service SIMPLE AKITIOMETIC comicbooks.com