Life, 1915-01-28 · page 10 of 40
Life — January 28, 1915 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features two illustrations captioned "According to Rodin—The Thinker" and "And as We Hear of Him," presenting a satirical contrast between artistic idealism and modern reality. The left image reproduces Rodin's famous sculpture of a contemplative nude male figure. The right image shows a man sitting on stacked books in a similar pose but clothed and appearing comical rather than noble. The satire critiques the gap between romantic artistic visions of intellectual life and actual modern existence. The accompanying essay discusses American character, quoting Lowes Dickinson's observations about American society as "queer," materialistic, and spiritually shallow—implying that contemporary Americans cannot achieve the philosophical depth represented by Rodin's idealized thinker.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Lee As Seen by a Cousin LOWES DICKINSON is an ac- * complished Englishman, a scholar and a good writer. He is a consid- erate, grave-minded man, who doubt- less loves the truth and would not consciously express opinions for mere pleasure in the sound of them—as Ber- nard Shaw might—nor yet out of mis- chief or maliciously. He honored our country five years ago with his per- sonal attention, and has written a book (“ Appearances”), in which he records some impressions that we made on him. As he sces us, we are not altogether to his taste. He says: Describe the average Western man and you describe the American; from east to west, from north to south, everywhere and always the same—masterful, aggressive, un- scrupulous, egotistic, and at once good-natured and brutal, kind if you do not cross him, ruthless if you do, greedy, ambitious, self- reliant, active for the sake of ac- tivity, intelligent and unintellectual, quick-witted and crass, contemptu- ous of ideas but amorous of devices, valuing nothing but success, recog- nizing nothing but the actual, Man in the concrete, undisturbed by spiritual life, the master of methods and slave of things, and therefore the conqueror of the world, the un- questioning and undoubting, the child with the muscles of a man, the European stripped bare, and shown for what he is, a predatory, unre- flecting, naif, precociously accom- plished brute. That is an interesting estimate of us, well put forth, and may be whole- some reading for us if we understand it. We must not feel that he has singled us out for disparagement. He probably sees the best he can in us, though not, let us hope, the best that we contain, And he is probably a good deal out of conceit with the whole of this modern machine-made world and the machinists who stoke its engines and superintend the revolutions of its wheels. He is the author of a book on “The Greek View of Life”, and that view, no doubt, suits him better than ours—if he would admit that we have any. There is a large company of us nowadays in this expanded country, and one might complain of Mr. Dick- inson for generalizing so positively about us on what must be a short and limited acquaintance. But let us not complain. If the man is trying hon- estly (as no doubt he is) to say what he saw in us, catch as catch can, we have no more reason to complain of him than of a mirror. The truth doubtless is that we are mighty queer people. Perhaps he would have liked us better two or three generations ago, before we broke out into ten-cent magazines and so many other novelties, and when we had a cultivated class that read Littell’s Living Age. If we are queer, we are not to blame for it. This is a mighty queer time to be living in, an age detached from tradition and precedent, bespattered with novelties, bedeviled with experiment, and in which exist- ing people seem to have been pitched into a great ring, to take hold any- where they can and make such a spectacle as they may. If we are queer enough—rampageous, masterful, aggressive, unscrupulous, self-reliant cnough—to get a living and survive in a world and time so queer as this, a truly philosophical ‘observer should be as thankful to discover us as to find a race of salamanders in a world afire. E. S. Martin, Helpful THE, government having been called upon to help every man, every man came in time to be helped by the government. Hence the follow- ing local items, selected from the chronicles of an ordinary village, be- came of national importance. Seth Birdseye, our popular barber, yesterday received permission from the Secretary of the Interior at Washing- ton to remain open hereafter on Thursday evenings. We are glad to announce that the Department of Commerce and Labor has established a free laundry for the benefit of all parents who have more than two children. Local branch will be open next Monday. Bachelors! Who mends_ your clothes and darns your socks? A Fed- eral Commission has just been ap- pointed to investigate this vital matter. All bachelors are invited to co-operate. Government time-clocks for bank presidents. The Secretary of the Treasury announces a new time-clock system which will go into effect imme- diately. Hereafter a record will be made of the actual labor performed by every bank president. Cwiffndenson— THE THINKER ACCORDING TO RODIN— AND AS WE HEAR OF HIM.