Life, 1913-12-25 · page 37 of 41
Life — December 25, 1913 — page 37: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising and editorial promotion** rather than satirical content. The main elements are: **Left side:** Two brief humorous anecdotes—one about Christmas preparations in Paris (describing the festive chaos of holiday shopping), and one joke about an elevator operator unfamiliar with tall buildings, reflecting early 20th-century urban growth. **Right side:** A full-page advertisement for *The Century* magazine's January issue, promoting six notable stories and articles by prestigious authors including H.G. Wells, Andrew Carnegie, and James D. Whelpley. It advertises a subscription bundle offer combining *The Century* and *St. Nicholas* magazines for $5.00 annually. **Small illustration:** "Just a Bare Beginning"—a sketch of a young bear cub, likely decorative. The page reflects *Life*'s dual function as both satirical publication and vehicle for advertising quality magazines and cultural products to educated, affluent readers of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
eas! and he he st JUST A BARE BEGINNING Christmas in Paris If you are an artist at heart, if you cherish your dreams, go to Paris for Christmas; they will be realized. For days before the great festivity you have seen on all sides feverish preparations for Noel, as we call it. All along the boulevards a continuous line of booths spring up like mushrooms on the side- walks, offering for a few sous almost everything in existence. The normal routine of life is altogether upset. The traffic is trebled, and if you are about in the early morning you will see huge carts coming in from the surrounding country, laden with the mistletoe which France supplies in every part of Europe. If you enter one of the great stores in search of the common necessaries of life, you will find it almost impossible to ob- tain them. The iron-mongery department will have been swept away to make place for a huge toy fair, and where you gen- erally seck neckties you are confronted with a Christmas tree, one hundred and fifty feet high, stayed with iron girders and bearing on its branches every con- ceivable object, from a five-cent toy to a fur coat or a canoe. To you, a foreigner in exile, all these busy preparations for the supreme festival of conviviality and domestic rejoicings have had the reverse effect that they have on the visibly rising spirits of the Pari- sians themselves. The very happiness of this particularly happy people seems to you selfish, and while you wander among the crowds you are obliged to recognize that, after all, they are but little different from those that are even now filling the streets of “little old New York” or, say, Chicago. And the very similarity makes you homesick. —C. F. Bertelli, Leslie's Weekly. “Wuat's the matter with this cle- vator?” asked the nervous man. “ You keep trying to run it through the roof.” “You'll have to excuse me,” replied the operator. “I'm not used to one of these little twenty-story buildings.” —Washington Star. "MAS. The January Century contains Six Notable Stories | | ] | of Century quality. Among them the first humorous story written by | May Sinclair, author of “The Divine Fire.” There is also the first part of a prophetic trilogy, “The Plot to Catch the Sun” By H. G. Wells, Romancer and Seer Other features are: “The River” A Stirring Ballad By John Masefield “The Hereditary Transmission of Property” By Andrew Carnegie “Shall the Filipinos Have a Fourth of July” By W. Morgan Shuster “Immigrants in Politics” By Professor E. A. Ross “The German Emperor and the Balkan Peace” By James D. Whelpley ete. etc, etc. Among the many illustrations is a full-color reproduction of a portrait painted last summer by Robert Vonnoh of Mrs. Woodrow Wilson and her three daughters. A Year’s Reading for the Whole Family for $5.00 Do you appreciate how much The Century and St. Nicholas bring to their readers in twelve months? Together they cover an immense field of fiction, art, public service, history, education, and humor. In book form, the material in these twenty-four splendid numbers would cost many times five dollars. Even in magazine form, the regular price is $7.00. Take Advantage of this Special Combination Offer (Saving you $2.00) Inclosed please: find $3, for which send The Century for one year, begin- ning with the. Name..... Addres: And St. Nicholas (must be new subscription) for one year, beginning with ses ebeceeedessceseveeseeseees issue, to the Name. Age. Address. Send $6.50 if St Nicholas is a renewal. tr225