Life, 1916-09-28 · page 38 of 41
Life — September 28, 1916 — page 38: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is an advertisement for a serialized fiction series by Booth Tarkington in *Everybody's Magazine*, introducing a new character named Lucius Brutus Allen. The appeal is explicitly **nostalgic Americana**: the text romanticizes small-town life—hitching posts, village bands, apple blossoms on Lincoln Street—evoking a pre-industrial American past. References to "the battles of '61" (Civil War) and politicians James G. Blaine and Grover Cleveland (prominent late-1800s figures) ground this in a specific era. The sketch depicts Allen as a small-town lawyer—described as "quaint, whimsical, dependable"—embodying the idealized rural gentleman. The advertisement promises readers will "know all his folks and love them," selling escapism through familiar, wholesome Americana. This reflects early-20th-century magazine culture's appetite for sentimental rural narratives, positioning Tarkington (author of *Penrod* and *Willie Baxter*) as the chronicler of vanishing American small-town life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LUCIUS BRUTUS ALLEN A New Character by Booth Tarkington The creator of Penrod and Willie Baxter OW long is it since you have been “back home’’? Back home, with its sun-soaked Main Street, where the patient nags at the hitch- ing-posts fought flies, while their owners and the storekeepers in tip-tilted chairs, under the faded awnings, fought over the battles of ’61, or the merits of ‘‘Jim’’ Blaine and Cleveland. Where, under the evening stars, to the far-off and therefore strangely sweet music of the village band down at the Square, you wandered up Lincoln Street with her —and the blossom-laden apple-trees filled the dusk with a wondrous perfume, which you never, never will forget. How long is it? Too long? Good! Here is Booth Tarkington waiting to take you “back home”’ with him. You'll know all his folks and love them. Especially—quaint, whimsical, depend- able, Lucius Brutus Allen—the village lawyer and friend of man—a fine, new Tarkington character. IN A SERIES Ocroser —The Spring Concert Novemper— Maytime in Marlow Decemper—Maud and Bill January —The Only Child Far opa the the san sile pun I he met was tor um an as dro two niny Abs hou seh dan