Life, 1915-11-18 · page 44 of 52
Life — November 18, 1915 — page 44: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains satirical advertisements and commentary typical of Life's early 20th-century humor: **Havone Cigarette Case ad**: A straightforward luxury product advertisement targeting wealthy riders, emphasizing convenience and elegance—cigarette cases were status symbols for the affluent. **"Civil Service Examination" satire**: Life mocks the modernist poetry movement (likely Imagism), which emphasized simple language and unclear meaning. The joke: aspiring poets must prove they have *no* sense of rhythm, write incomprehensibly despite plain words, and have failed at everything else. This reflects contemporary intellectual debates about whether "new poetry" was genuine art or pretentious nonsense. **Mogul Egyptian Cigarettes ad**: Features an orientalist caricature of a man in Egyptian dress with a dog. The copy plays on exotic appeal—positioning Egyptian cigarettes as sophisticated and foreign. **"A Word for the Fly"**: A tongue-in-cheek defense of houseflies against public health campaigns, absurdly claiming flies spread no diseases and are "pioneers of civilization." This likely satirizes both overzealous sanitarians and anti-pest movements of the era. The page is primarily advertising with embedded satire targeting contemporary cultural trends.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
$ fy IME man who rides in the Park was one of the first to recog- nize the convenience of the Havone Cigarette Case—an important ac- cessory of the riding kit. May be taken from the pocket and opened with one hand. Cigar- ettes cannot spill—each in its own compartment, standing out in the most inviting manner, to be taken with the fingers or lips. HAVONE CORPORATION Civil Service Examination To Become a Poet, According to the Requirements of the New School of Poetry Have you any sense of rhythm? If so, how little, and will you deposit a suitable bond to get rid of it before you begin writing? Can you write of some simple ex- perience which everybody knows about, using plain words of one syllable, ar- ranged in such a manner that nobody knows what they mean? Have you ever had any experience beyond riding in a Ford or reading the Hearst papers? Have you tried every other form of making a living, including running for Congress, and failed? | LOCKWOOD PUB. CO., Dept 76, Dept. C, 21-23 Maiden Lane No crushing, no broken ends, no muss- iness, The Havone is as readily filled as the ordinary case. What better Christmas gift for the outdoor man! Havone Cigarette Cases are made in Sterling Silver-plate, in Solid Sterling, 10K Gold and 14K Gold—Prices, $3.50 up. If your dealer hasn’t stocked up on the HAVONE, send us $3.50 and we will mail you one direct—either plain finished, or with monogram spot, or one of the all- over patterns. At any rate, send us your name on a post-card for one of our handsome catalogues. NEW YORK THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW PATH for $9058 oa Rs AS FAR AS HE'S CONCERNED A Word for the Fly We will back the fly against all the murderous efforts of its enemies, either at Mansion House meetings or elsewhere. The house-fly is an absolute necessity to our existence; it is not a foe, but a friend—one of nature's pioneers of civil- ization. No one has yet proved in a single instance that it has ever spread a solitary disease in history; as long as its faithful services are required, those services will be forthcoming, and it will defy all the efforts of Mansion House bishops, professors or surgeons, to bring about the day of its extermination. —The Abolitionist, London, EGYPTIAN CIGARETTES CORK TIP END. JUST LIKE BEING IN CAIRO’ comicbooks.com