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Life, 1914-10-01 · page 37 of 48

Life — October 1, 1914 — page 37: what you’re looking at

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Life — October 1, 1914 — page 37: Life, 1914-10-01

What you’re looking at

This short article satirizes federal overreach by describing Boston's new custom-house: a modern tower built through the roof of a historic Greek temple, twice the height of Bunker Hill Monument, violating local building laws. The author argues this structure symbolizes national government supremacy over city and state interests—the federal government disregards Boston's regulations because it has the constitutional authority to do so. The accompanying joke about St. Peter—where a spirit admits to being a "robber" who dealt in "ice, coal or gas"—appears to mock utility monopolies and price-gouging as a form of theft. The rest of the page consists of advertisements (Lee Tires, White Rose Glycerine Soap) and an unrelated essay on Wall Street's volatility causing national economic anxiety.

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

A Bostonian Parable THE new Boston custom-house is a curi y. Land being scarce and costly in that compressed penin- sula, the government has solved in a unique manner the problem of more space for its custom-house business. It has kept the little old Greek temple which has sufficed the Modern Athens for so many years, has bored beneath it and built up a concrete foundation, and has reared right through the roof of the Greek temple an extremely modern tower. This tower is twice the height of Bunker Hill Monument. It is by all odds the tallest thing in Boston, It is a beautiful structure, and dominates the landscape in all di- rections. Even the gilded dome of the State House, the Hub of the Universe, is now a secondary object. And in order to do this the government disre- gards the Boston building laws, as the nation has a right to disregard them, more than doubling the permitted height of Bostonian buildings. Thus that tower is a parable of the supremacy of the nation, in all matters of national concern, over the interests and preferences of city and State. Seen in this light, the new Boston cus- tom-house is perhaps quite as signifi- cant as Faneuil Hall. A, R.W. Sr. Peter: What was your occupa- tion on earth? Spirit: Robber. Sr. Peter: Ice, coal or gas? —Philadelphia Ledger. Send a 2¢ Stamp i ae: Sa JUST look through this pure transparent soap, smell its delicate perfume, and feel its rich, creamy lather on your face. You will never again be satisfied with any toilet soap less pure and perfect. ONT oat Iosures a soft, clear, beautiful skin. Three generations of refined women on both sides of the Atlantic ba fen its merits. Sold ' every country where beauty is admired or health desired. At your dey goods dealer or druggist at 1Sc. per cake, For sample trial cake, send 2c stamp, of for 10 cents In stamps we will send you a poets ‘cumple cake 1 White Rose Glycerine Soap, carn 4711 Eau de Cologee. «sanitary, comomirite Bent. A fuxurious thames, MULHENS & KROPFF, Dept. L, 25 W. 4Sth St., New York U's mRANcH oF Yerd, MUtbeas, A711 Glockeagasse, Cologee 0/R, Germany PNEUMATIC __ PUNCTURE-PROOF ZIG-ZAG Tread The The World’s Bee Greatest Pneumatic Tire Improvement— PUNCTURE-PROOF! LEE is the only pneumatic tire definitely guaranteed to be puncture-proof. Opens up a new era of tire service. LEE Tires PNEUMATIC NON-SKID PUNCTURE-PROOF a Their incomparable worth is due partly to the ‘‘ vanadium” rubber of which they are made, and partly to the remarkable puncture-proof feature— New Booklet ‘‘G”" Mailed on Request LEE TIRE & RUBBER CO. Manufacturers of Rubber Goods since 1883 CONSHOHOCKEN, PA. Distributors in all the important cities of the United States and Canada Look up "Lee Tires” in your Telephone Directory E shall probatly have to get rid of Wall Street altogether one of these days. There seems to be no other way out of it. Wall Street is much too sensitive a plant for so coarse-grained a nation as we. Wall Street is always getting out of order, having a panic, or expecting a panic, or hoping for a panic, or ruminating the panics of yore. To have an affair like that dancing nervously about in our midst all the time and anxiously importuning us not to do anything that might change some- thing, necessarily gets on our nerves in time and sets the rest of us to shivering also. Whereas, if we were let alone, we could go calmly and serenely about our business, trying all experiments that looked interesting and holding fast to those that turned out all right. comicbooks.com