Life, 1913-12-18 · page 35 of 40
Life — December 18, 1913 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains social commentary and advertising from an early 20th-century American magazine. **Main Content:** A poem by Margaret Chanler Aldrich critiques wealthy consumers' hypocrisy. She attacks shop owners who pay women starvation wages (forcing some into prostitution—"goes under"), while those same owners patronize rescue missions to ease their conscience. The poem argues structural economic change, not charity, is needed. A child's prayer for "car fares" for her working mother underscores the poem's point about systemic poverty. **Satirical Thrust:** The piece mocks the moral contradiction of the comfortable class: they profit from exploiting workers, then perform charity to feel righteous—missing the real solution. **Supporting Content:** A Mexican joke about sending convicts as "volunteers" to the army, plus various period advertisements (artificial ear drums, railroad service, motion picture schools). The page reflects Progressive Era concerns about labor exploitation and consumer responsibility.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Into working for wages on which they can't live, It’s they who need Scriptures on how to forgive. But your mean little checks—five here and ten there— For the sweated you doom to a hos- pital’s care Are the devil's own credit. It's he alone knows If after long hours, girls reel from a store More dead than alive, to a friend at the door— Who offers to treat them, and one more goes under— ‘Tis you are to blame, with your bar- gains and blunder. You patronize shops which are open at night, Then you open a Rescue and think it’s all right. I tell you conditions don’t change for committees— It will take every woman in each of your cities; Good hours! good wages! a small divi- dend To the octopus owners—then world without end.” Just then came the voices of children at prayers— “Dear Santa Claus, please send my mother car fares, She cannot work late and be walking home, too,” When away to his children the Santa Claus flew. —Margaret Chanler Aldrich, Published by the Consumers’ League of the City of New York. Courtesy of the New York Times. Ix Mexico all convicts and jailbirds are sent to the army and are classed as volunteers. In a small town a petty offi- cer gathered up a bunch of these and sent them in to his superior officer with this note: “T send you herewith fifty volunteers, Please send back the ropes.” —Everybody’s. | WAS DEAF 25 YEARS I Can Now Hear with these soft, artificial ear drums. 1 wear them in my ears night and day. They are perfectly comfortable. Noone sees them. Write me and I will tell you a true story— how I got deat and bow I made myself hear. Address Artificial Ear Drum Co. GEO. P, WAY, 92 Adelaide 8t., Detrolt, Mich. " Red, blue, brown, green. Plain edge 2c. Auction table and rules tm each pack. Dept te tA be N PLOTS wa ron PLAYS cache Wthen, Mautactarers non paring 2 tfc for vious experience necessary. Write now for free details, ASSOCLATED MOTION PICTURE SCHOOLS, 674D Sheridan Road, Chleage oooo0oo0qococ°oco°ce A_ MOVING SAFETY A succession of safety signals guarding an all-steel train— —Speeding over all-steel rails on a roadbed solid as rock— —Low grades, few curves, dust- less double tracks— —Safeguard the flight of the OVERLAND LIMITED on its daily trip to California The only daily extra fare California Fast Time in a Zone” train and the only exclusively first-class hire train to San Francisco, the OVERLAND LIMITED leaves Chicago at 7.00 p.m. Arrives at San Francisco at 9.30 the morning of the third day, only 64 hours and 30 minutes en route, a business day saved. assengers, limited to the number that can be accommodated in uncrowded comfort, are surrounded by every luxury that modern railroad equipment can command, Accommodations include Buffet-Club Car, Observation-Library Car, Dining Car, bathing facilities and barber shop. Drawing rooms and compartments may be engaged en suite. Ladies’ maid, valet and stenographer. Chicago’ &NorthWestern nion Pacific Southern Pacific The Route of Moving Pictures 2 send you our Overland Limited Book describing this unique train in detail. On re- quest a representative will call and make all ar rangements for your trip. Special attention given papal inauizies ‘Address Chicago of New York, Dept. 42. "J. B. DeFriest Gen'l Eastern Agent, Union Pacific R. R. 28/7 Broadway, New York W. G. Neimyer H. A. Cross in 1 Agent Cop " Lng thern Pacific Co, 3 Ww: —— Blvd. Nosh’ Welter Ry. 148. rk St., Chicago Ticket Offices in All sansa a Including Interior View of Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Ds Ke? i i Cincinnati, St. Louis, New ert Chicas, Bis Mikado Eakins Cannibals N acute doctor has recently advanced the theory that the ideal diet is a cannibalistic A one. He appears to think that his theory is startling. And yet is his idea not, after all, the acme of the commonplace? Many of the lower animals, in obeying their own instincts, are cannibals. And is this doctrine not sound when we apply it in other quarters? For example, it seems to work perfectly in the world of business, What is a trust but a cannibal? Is it not the business of a trust to absorb creatures of its own kind smaller than itself who cannot escape its maw? Does not experience teach us that every successful individual, in order to be successful, must be a cannibal? Does he not absorb others of his own kind and thus acquire that kind of power which makes him pre-eminent among his fellow-creatures? Ccomicbooks.com