Life, 1916-12-28 · page 30 of 41
Life — December 28, 1916 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Cartoon ("When the Millennium Comes to the Auto Tire Trust"):** The top illustration depicts a fantastical future city where vehicles have been replaced by enormous wheels serving as transportation and recreational devices. Citizens ride on oversized tires; some are stacked as buildings or monuments. This is satirical commentary on the emerging automobile industry's dominance and the "tire trust"—likely referring to consolidation in tire manufacturing around this era. **The Article ("A Great Hotel-Keeper"):** An obituary-style tribute to George C. Boldt, who ran the famous Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York for 23 years. The piece praises his success as rooted in genuine humanity and kindness toward employees and guests. It positions him as proof that New York, often seen as cutthroat, could nurture such virtue. **The Ironic Ending:** The final paragraph notes Boldt was German-born, then delivers pointed satire: it contrasts his admirable "German virtues" with the cruelty "the war has branded on the German people," hoping there are "more German Boldts than we think." This references WWI-era anti-German sentiment, using Boldt's example to argue Germans aren't inherently militaristic.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WHEN THE MILLENNIUM COMES TO THE A Great Hotel-Keeper E there was a successful hotel- eeper who came in for a large fortune and retired from business. Why should a successful hotel-keeper ever retire from business, unless, in- deed, he is tired out beyond recupera- tion? What other calling can offer better chances of realizing the aim of states- men and saints by promoting human happiness? What other calling is grounded on hospitality, a luxury which rich people spend fortunes to enjoy, a virtue which poor people pinch them- selves to practice? Other philanthro- pists go about doing good, but the philanthropic hotel-keeper stays at home and does it to go-abouters. George C. Boldt, who died the other day, so widely and heartily lamented, was the most successful hotel-keeper of his day. About three blocks from this office he ran for twenty-three years a tavern the fame of which extends to the Andes and the Himalayas. He started so poor and ended so rich that the story of his career is pleasantly like a fairy-tale, but Simeon Ford, who talked to the Post about him on the day he died, said, in effect, that the basis of all his success was his hu- manity. He was the most lovable, simple sort of a man. I do not believe he ever made an enemy. Of course, he put our cye out, the rest of us who could not keep up with him, but he was so nice about it we never com- plained. His help worshipped him, and if there were any good in a man he would find it out. You know we hotel-keepers were old sea-captains in our hotels, and we drove our peo- ple like slaves, I have seen Boldt walk up to a bell-hop, put his hand on his shoulder, and say, “Son, would you mind running up to the room for my hat?” So Mr. Ford, and leaves in the mind AUTO TIRE TRUST a pleasant picture of a winner. We hope our Southern and Western friends, who seem prone to think de- spondently of New York, will take note of it. If Gotham is a maclstrom in which the simple are engulfed and the good sucked down, the Waldorf- Astoria for twenty years has been its vortex. Behold it ruled by this kindly man who insisted that the people who came to him should be made happy, and who knew what to do for them, and did it. Mr. Boldt was German-born, and perhaps his virtues were German vir- tues. But how utterly different his characteristics were from those the war has branded on the German peo- ple. Let us hope there are more Ger- man Boldts than we think, and no doubt there are. If they were all like him the world might almost consent to the Pan-German ideal of earth as humanity’s great hotel kept by Ger- mans. AEALA i EL, | eS 4 zy Niger i Ogee Vt 4)