Life, 1917-01-18 · page 4 of 40
Life — January 18, 1917 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **subscription advertisement** rather than editorial content. The page promotes Life magazine by playing on contemporary anxiety about **Prohibition** — the constitutional ban on alcohol (1920-1933). The satire works through a fake mystery: Life claims to possess "The Prohibition Number of Life" and promises to reveal whether Prohibition will encourage or discourage drinking. The publication teases readers that this "fatal truth" will solve the debate dividing the nation. The illustration shows a man dramatically clutching a cocktail glass, emphasizing the era's tension around illegal alcohol consumption. The appeal to "be a subscriber!" uses this manufactured intrigue to drive subscriptions, costing roughly five dollars annually. The postscript — "Don't do it if you don't want to" — adds ironic humor typical of Life's satirical tone.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
\Y N Under Any Circumstances Get The Prohibition Number of Life which will come soon. Will this great number of Lire favor prohibition? Will it, on the contrary, favor the most reckless indulgence in alcohol? On the answer to this question a whole civilization waits. Until the Prohibition Number of Lire comes out nobody will quite know where he stands. We shall at pres- ent give no inkling of the fatal truth. We propose to keep the grim secret from everybody until the number is issued. When? We'll tell you a little later. In the meantime, be a subscriber! Try a year’s regular reading of this often remarkable paper. It will only cost you a fiver or so (see the coupon, which we are obliged to print or lose our job). f P.S.—Don't do it if you don’t want to. Z Special Otter ! Enclosed / find One Dol- / lar (Canadian $1.13, Foreign $1.26). “Send Lire y for three months’ to 4 Have you scen the Miniature Lire Number Open only to new subscribers; no sub Four? If ill send us a two-cent stamp scriptions renewed at this rate. for mailing we will forward you a copy. J 5 LIFE, 17 West gist Street, New York. vA One Year, $5.00. (Canadian, $5.52; Foreign, $6.04.) comicbooks.com