Life, 1917-02-15 · page 32 of 42
Life — February 15, 1917 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"The Spectre" (cartoon):** A satirical sketch showing a well-dressed man in a top hat encountering a ghost-like female figure. The caption suggests this depicts "Literary Feudalism"—likely the specter of economic inequality haunting the publishing world. **"Literary Feudalism" (essay):** Criticizes how editors now control authors. As specialized periodicals proliferate to serve niche reading tastes, editors gain economic power over desperate writers who need income. The satire predicts a "feudal" system where authors become dependent retainers to wealthy editors—humorists, sentimentalists, and poets reduced to interchangeable servants. **"Children's Playgrounds":** Advocates for urban play spaces, arguing that as automobiles multiply, cities become deadlier for children. The piece sarcastically notes society won't train kids to dodge cars, so cities must demolish buildings to create safe playgrounds—treating child safety as a national defense priority. **Other content includes** light verse about romantic disappointment and a cartoon mocking a governor's condescension toward a commuted prisoner.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE SPECTRE Children’s Playgrounds HE problem of adding to the num- ber of children’s playgrounds in becoming constantly more Every additional motor car constructed increases by so much the cities is acute. danger. Children surely have a right to be born and have their human mo- tive power developed as well as motor cars have a right to be manufactured. Considering the great number of acci- dents to children in city streets, it is astonishing how slow we are to stop this loss of young life and limb. Chil- dren continue, through necessity and in constantly increasing numbers, to use the city strects, lacking any better place. They have as much inherent right to do this as grown-ups, if. not more. Certainly nobody would have the audacity to suggest adding to our already overburdened «curriculum a class in training infants to dodge auto- mobiles, Merely as an adequate means of national defense for the future, we shall soon be compelled to tear down many of our city buildings to provide space for playgrounds. ‘LLP E: Literary Feudalism ITERARY feudalism is on its way. It started with certain sections of the reading public having peculiar tastes, with the result that certain peri- odicals sprang up to suit them, and cer- tain editors found themselves obliged to discover and instruct certain authors to write stuff to please the peculiar tastes, The authors, needing bread, butter and incidentals, followed the edi- torial instructions, and the number of periodicals and editors, not increasing at the same ratio as the number of authors, leaves the editors with a de- cided economic advantage. As the proc- ess of submission and rejection or To a Lady WAS gay when I was young, T was quick of eye and tongue, And a very handy chap for any plan} But since I saw Clarice, My mind has lost its peace, And I'm nothing but a remnant of a man. Before my fate is foiled, And I’m completely spoiled, I beg you duty’s summons not to shirk; But since you've got my best, Be kind, and take the rest, And join again my fragments so they'll work. Kind-Hearted Governor: HUM! IT SEEMS TO ME THAT IF YOU WERE REALLY INNOCENT YOU WOULD SHOW MORE APPRECIATION OP MY HAVING COMMUTED YOUR SENTENCE TO LIFE-IMPRISONMENT! acceptance of literaturt develops, the editors will grow stronger, and the authors more dependant, with the re- sult that in the not far distant future each editor may have a completely tame company of retainers, including humor- ists, sentimentalists, vers-librists and all other species of ists. When that dreadful day arrives ‘street-cleaning commissioners should have no difficul- ty in recruiting hordes of snow re- movers. NCLE SAM has decided to let sculptors put their initials on the coins they design. That’s a good be- ginning. The next step is to design some coins that will give the people of 2000 A. D, as much interest in the ar- tist as we should take in a bit of news about the anonymous Greek who cre- ated a coin of 400 B. C. OODROW sai there was not. Peace”; and lo! comicbooks.com