Life — November 26, 1914 — page 3: what you’re looking at

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

‘The Domestic Library HE domestic, or home, library usually consists of a disorganized and incoherent mass of classics and best-sellers of the day before yesterday, which lean up against each other as if they had been out all night. These are stacked in a series of shelves in front of which usually stands a sofa, on guard, Sometimes there will be an impos- ing-looking black walnut bookcase with leaded glass doors—a holdover from a previous generation. In this case there will repose, on the bottom shelf, some volumes of Harper's Magazine. Above these you may see the first edition of “Innocents Abroad”, and an ancient copy of Shakespeare, expurgated for family use, with steel engravings. But even this kind of a library is becoming rarer all the time. The sporadic modern growth usually con- sists of a set of revamped histories in twenty or so volumes, foisted upon the unsophisticated owner by some enter- prising book agent, each set numbered and de luxe, and not infrequently in a binding which is dramatically an- nounced to be an actual copy of sets in the Vatican, as if the Vatican did not already have enough sins to an- swer for! “War Is Not Always Hell” _— except to the ‘‘non-com’’ on the out- side! In the words of the poet, he’d ‘‘rather be inside a-lookin’ out, than on the outside a-| (fd-Daratogg When EXTRA FINE you want WHISKEY a real and then make sure you get it. drink ask for 'f sour dealer hasn’t Old Saratoga in stock, send us six dollars and we will see that you get at once four full quarts, all charges paid. Rosskam, Gerstley & Co., Philadelphia "I lad iE In a mental picture, he iy reviews the accident, the result of his recklessness. He realizes too late that it is always foolhardy to motor on slippery roads and streets without equipping all four tires with Weed Ant-skid Chains The Only Real Safeguard Against Skidding Strange, is it not, that some men laugh at peril—they, do not seek to avoid danger—and they have no fear be> cause they have no prudence. They continue to motor over sleety, icy, or wet roads and pavements with “Foolish Dependence Upon Bare Rub- ber Alone" until a false turn—a sudden meeting at a corner—a slip or a skid rings disaster as the punishment for their Pima A You motorists with reasoning brains put on your Tire Chains at the first indication of slippery streets, and the editors of the daily newspapers are urg- ing all motorists to follow your ex a For instance, the Public Ledger of Philadelphia, Pa., published by the own- ers of The Saturday Evening Post, in an editorial on August Ist, 1914, said that the simple a tion to “Use Tire Chains on wet and slippery pave- ments"’ deserved to find its way into a law,and that law should by all means be enforced. Promote ‘'Safety First’’ in YOUR motoring circle— insist that everyone use Weed Chains on ALL tires. Weed Chain Tire Grip Co., Bridgeport, Conn. Manufactured for Canada by DOMINION CHAIN COMPANY, Limited Head Office: Shaughn: jessy Building, Montreal, C But how rare in these days is an intelligent home library, one that is crowded out by phonograph records and automobile and moving-picture being properly exercised each day, with the bloom of health upon its cheeks and real inspiration in its eyes. How changed are things nowadays from the time when Wordsworth ex- claimed: “And books we know are a sub- stantial world.” Now, if anything, they have become an unsubstantial world, something to be tucked away in dark corners, magazines. And yet there are, in round numbers, said to be about twenty thousand vol- umes published in English each year. Where do they go? Who reads them? Perhzps our college professors are doing it. With a growing sense of their literary responsibilities, maybe they feel obliged to read all these books. Perhaps that is why they are becoming so unintelligent. ‘comicbooks.com