Life, 1916-04-06 · page 46 of 80
Life — April 6, 1916 — page 46: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a lawsuit story and a brief joke. The main article reports that *Life* magazine's publishing company is suing the Branchville Fresh Air Association in Connecticut. Since 1887, *Life* had maintained a charitable fund sending poor New York children to a farm each summer. When a manufacturer donated the farm and stock dividends (worth $7,500 by 1912), the Branchville association became trustee but allegedly refused to distribute the accumulated money for its intended charitable purpose—helping poor children. The Attorney-General is seeking to force an accounting and remove the association as trustee. The accompanying illustration titled "INFERNO" likely depicts poverty or suffering children, visualizing the charitable cause at stake. Below is an unrelated joke about a chauffeur running away with someone's family member, where the punchline suggests the chauffeur's happiness proves it couldn't have been his employer's daughter (implying daughters are less desirable than wives).
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
INFERNO Life Sues for the Children Bripcerort, Conn., March 21.—Alleging that $7,500 has been withheld by the Branchville Fresh Air Asso- ciation, Attorney-General Hinman has brought action ion on behalf of the Life Publishing Company of New York. Papers were served to-day. It is claimed by President Mitchell of Lire that since 1887 the company has maintained a fresh air fund and has kept a farm in Branchville known as e's Farm, where children from New York are sent each summer. Edwin Gilbert, a Ridgefield manufacturer, donated the seventeen-acre farm to the fresh air fund, and when he died in 1906 he left three hundred shares of the Gilbert & Bennett Manufacturing Company stock, the dividends from which were to be used to help the farm. The Branchville association was named as trustee of the fund, and it is claimed that dividends at the rate of 12 per cent. annually have been piling up. The amount of dividends now is said to be $7,500, but the Life company claims the Branchville association has refused to turn over this money. Attorney-General Hinman asks the court to order an accounting and also asks that the Branchville asso- ciation be removed as trustee.—Press Dispatch to the New York Sun. L is simply trying to compel the trustees of the Branchville Association to use the funds intended by Mr. Gilbert for the benefit of poor children for that purpose instead of letting the money accumulate in their own hands. Something Wrong “P)ID Billy's chauffeur run off with his daughter or his wife?” “I'm not sure. But I understand that he said the other day he hadn't been so happy in years.” “Then it couldn't have been his daughter.”