Life, 1915-04-01 · page 4 of 72
Life — April 1, 1915 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features five caricatured heads with exaggerated features, arranged around the question "Are You An Optimist?" The text below ("We Yield") indicates Life magazine's editorial surrender after a four-week campaign against a coupon advertisement they found objectionable. The specific identities of the caricatured figures are unclear from the image alone. However, the context suggests they may represent either: - Types of optimists or business figures - Political/public figures contemporary to the publication The satire targets the magazine's loss of editorial control—they've yielded to advertiser pressure despite their artistic objections, now promoting subscriptions themselves. The grotesque heads likely mock the irony of calling their compromise an "optimistic" outcome for readers. The date and pricing information suggests this is from approximately the 1920s-1930s era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Are You An Optimist? We Yield For four weeks now we have fought the good fight and kept the atrocious coupon out of this artistic page. But the sordid advertis- ing department has put it in here this week in spite of us. Well, let us make the best of itand fill in ournamesand send inourgood money, as many of us as wish to subscribe regularly, even if it hurts our conscience. Thisis only preliminary to the announcement that the greatest number of Life ever issued will burst upon an astonished world on May 4th. It is the first harbinger of the real Spring that is now beginning to burst in the soul of the tired business man. In short, the Optimists’ Number of Life er rs is now on its gladsome way toward the sceiblonirenewell at. this rate American people. May 4. 10 cents. LIFE, 17 West 31st Street, New York a One Year, $5.00. (Canadian, $5.52; Foreign, $6.04)