Life — May 21, 1914 — page 38: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Casus Belli Eprtor Lire: A few days ago my neighbor's baby insulted my dog, althongh not intention- ally as far as I am able to judge. Naturally I immediately demanded an apology. My neighbor, an extremely courteous and well-bred gentleman, agreed at once, but interposed all sorts of ludicrous objec- tions when I demanded that he also salute my dog with twenty-one cap-pistol shots or firecracker explosions. I re- strained my rage as well as £ could and tried to argue the matter with him. He obstinately refused, however, to listen to my earnest entreaties, so there was nothing left for me to do but to give him a sound thrashing and annex a considerable part of his property. Don't you think I was right? Prixcerontan. Newark, N. J. April “18. 1914. Pragmatic? To tur Eptror or Lier: Feeling that “ Quot homines—tot sen- tentiae” is your creed in all things, 1 have dared to write my opinion after reading the review of “Help Wanted” in your last issue. “IE to do were as casy as to know what were good to be done” there would be little use for the so-called moral influ- ence of the stage. But since our knowl. edge is obscured by human desire, we necd such help as is gained from plays like “ Kismet, where we are taught to renounce, or “The Garden of Allah”, showing the price of deceit. Comparing these with “Help Wanted ", where noth- ing is gained but an erroncous impres- sion of conditions existing in a typical office, T can see no excuse for the toler ance of such imposition on the public's good nature. Granted that two intelligent, attractive people constantly associated will interest cach other, it does not of necessity fol- low that they must descend to that com- mon plane of amusement, flirtation, or yet soar to Icarian heights of “* Affinity ”. Isn't it a bit narrow to class. stenog- raphers as unscrupulous home-wreekers, and the average business man as im potent to resist a pretty face? If that were truc, most of us would have a rather dilute solution of faith in human nature. The only purpose of the picce, to my mind, is to arouse suspicion in the minds of women having no cause for complaint while those afflicted with i hyshands would doubtless fail de at al a cha What Do You Think? We are Constantly in Receipt of Important Letters Which are Too Loug for Our Limited Space. Brevity is Desirable. to be amused by the public portrayal of a private wrong. The above savors slightly of the pragmatic—but so docs the play “Help Wanted Very truly yours, Litunw M. Beanro Honvoxe, Mass., Well-Meaning Idiots Eoirox or Lire, Dear Sir: One of your correspondents, signing “Suffragist”, classes. us among the “ignorant, uneducated people, or idiots who do not believe in vaccination ”, doubtless having noted an editorial in a certain newspapers in which readers were advised to pay no attention to the ‘aporings of opponents of this precious treatment, calling them “ well-meaning idiots”! Perhaps you might be disposed to print a partial list of these, headed by Alfred Russel Wallace, Herbert Spencer, Prof. John Milne, Prof. Francis W. New- man, Sir William Collins, M.D. F.R.S.P., cte., physicians to royalty, with a follow. ing of scores of eminent physicians and scientists, who hold that the injection of virus into the circulation, whether the operation is performed by a lance-head snake or a lance-hand doctor, is unhy- gicnic and inevitably harmful, as we all know that it is occasionally fatal, and not infrequently causing conditions vastly worse than death. The belief of all the above-named --<icntists, based upon the most careful investigations, is that vaccination is absolutely useless as a preventive of smallpox. As a believer in equal suffrage, I must say that I am ashamed to find any suffragist favoring vaccination. Citartes E. Pace, M.D. Bostox, Mass., March 24, 1914. Cock-sure ! There is more truth, Mr. Cock-sure Editor of Lire, in Mr. Bird's “ chirrup” (as you call it) than in your twitter. Whenever and wherever women have gone into public affairs by the front door—as modern progressive women are doing—their presence has made for de- cency and enlightenment. When they have merely “ influenced” men by essen- tially feminine gifts and charms (a thing to which no real woman will stoop), they have often been, as you sagely observe, “the power behind the thrown”. It is not that “men shirk of are unfit for their jobs" and so “women get them”, Men have always shirked and Leen unfit for theit jobs (most of them), and they have gone on holding down those same ‘jobs because some woman— mother, sister, wife—has done the work and meekly handed over all the credit and most of the cash. The “new deal” which you prophesy will consist in a logical rather than a masculine division of work, credit and cash, Sincerely yours, E. H. Staten Tstanp, March 3, 1914. “AND THEY SAY ‘DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES’ A | en eet ee a comicbooks.com