Life — June 17, 1915 — page 50: what you’re looking at

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

e their a ction qui ay Wet Ne advertising, but the personal éndorse- of those who use them has bub up a ‘fant and ever-increasing demand. * xtra heavy traction tread insures tf tsu- long service. Guaranteed 5000 miles. Try Hardman Tires next time C4 vie New York Office, 1904 Broadway (2 Agencies in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, St. Louis, San Francitéo, FY — Providence, Newark, Paterson, Buffalo, Houston and other cit Silk Hosiery Plenty of gaiety in June. Plenty of occasions when your hosiery must be viewed by critical eyes. Make sure that yours is good to look at and dependable— qualities you're sure of if you get McCallum's. __Ask your dealer 10 show you the following, correct hose for immediate wear. No. 1201—Pure thread silk, heavy weight—black snd colors, No, 326—Black and staple colors, pure thread silk, isle inner- lined sole, heel and toe. No, 329—New rib shot silk hose in the fash ionable two-tone combinations, No, 308—Black extra-fine silk hose, superior to hand mode. Sold at the Best Shops Everywhere Let us send you our attractive booklet on men's women’s silk hosiery. McCallum Bosiery Co. NORTHAMPTON, MASS, The Middle-class Mind E of the most singular things about the middle-class mind is that the owner will never admit that he has it. “IT don't pretend,” says the average man, “to be a transcendent genius, but I have my own ideas.” In other words, the average man really does pretend. He pretends, and he is thoroughly convinced in his pretension, that he looks at things from a little more exclusive standpoint than any other average man, and so, if we should make a canvass of the country, we should not be able to locate the middle-class mind; but it is there, nevertheless. The middle-class mind exists fractionally in cities. Nat- urally, living in cities is not conducive to intelligence. There are too many distractions; there is too much con- centration upon what one might call the exclusion of mind. In just the same sense that Henry James once observed that the Waldorf-Astoria had been built for the exclusive- ness of the masses, so we may say that the great cities tend to the exclusion of anything that pertains to the higher mental processes. In cities, therefore, the middle-class mind exists only as it has been transplanted from other places. In the country we have what may be called the lower middle-class mind. It is only in the country that the apotheosis of dullness reaches its climax. In the city peo- ple are not dull; they are blind. In the country people are not blind; they are what may be termed “logy”. It is only in the suburbs that we reach the supremacy of the middle-class mind. Here we find it in all the luxuri- ance of its vegetation. It is composed of a mixture of pseudo-culture and artificial practicality, mingled with equal parts of religion, social ambitions and hypocrisy : hypocrisy, by the way, that is entirely unconscious of itself, but which leavens the whole 1 ure and gives it a certain kind of body. Added to this whole mixture is that kind of egoism (not egotism) which makes it impossible for the possessor to get outside of himself or look at himself from any other angle but his own middle-classness. The suburbs are increasing. The fringe between cities and farms is becoming wider and wider all the time. The middle-class mind is, therefore, also increasing, and we shall soon have it in full control. Thus we are assured, for innumerable years ahead, of splendid audiences for lectures on popular subjects, and for half-baked books turned out over night by secondary authors, OH, JUST TO THR EDGR—AND BACK AGAIN, OF COURSE