Life, 1917-04-26 · page 42 of 84
Life — April 26, 1917 — page 42: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising**, dominated by a promotional campaign for *Vanity Fair* magazine. The satirical content is minimal. The notable elements: **"Epitaph on the Kaiser"**: A brief, sharp poem (quoting Byron) mocking the German Kaiser—likely Wilhelm II—characterizing him as a ruthless gambler with empires and human lives. This reflects post-WWI sentiment treating the Kaiser as responsible for the war's carnage. **The Vanity Fair Advertisement**: The bulk of the page promotes a subscription offer ($1 for six months). The copy humorously positions the magazine as essential social training—teaching readers to wear tiaras without hatpins, distinguish Newport dowagers from sea-lions, and avoid being a "Social Gloom" or "intellectual Wet Blanket" at dinner parties. It's light satire of 1920s upper-class pretension and anxiety about social sophistication. **Supporting ads**: Horlicks malted milk and the Biltmore hotel round out the page's luxury consumer focus. The overall tone is **post-war American leisure culture**—celebrating consumption and social climbing while taking a pointed jab at wartime leadership.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Epitaph on the Kaiser HOSE game was empires and whose Original ick‘ f stalkes ‘were thrones; 7 f i Pai Whose table earth, whose’ dice were Malted Milk g : "7 oe human bones. i is —From “The Age of Bronze,” Byron, UN Dies A ETE YN Nee LUE is one of the primary colors, The powder disso ter. Needs _no cooking—Keep it on hand. — B and typifies the mental condition Rich Milk, Malted grain extract in powder. | The Original Food-Drink for all ages. atic chien oka GalTues: For Infante, Invalids and growin; children. More nourishing than tea, coffee, etc. | of the negligent citizen who o: es Pure nutrition, upbuilding the whole body. | In the home, or at Hotels and Cafes. day finds out that his newsdealer has Invigorates nursing mothers, and the aged. | Substitutes cost YOU Same Price. sold out all his copies of Lire, Six Months of Vanity Fair will Enable you to Ignite a Dinner Party at Fifty Yards BLESSED ARE THE MEEK—FOR THEY SHALL ABANDON THE EARTH Don’t be a Social Gloom. Don’t be an intellectual Wet Blanket. Dream Folk Realized Don't kill the dinner stone dead along about the chicken okra or the THE TindwAmerican plots by | baked sea bass. Enjoy it all the way from the cocktails and caviar Chander Checkerberry, Sekunna, Heramba Gupta the Columbia student, |clear through to the coffee and Coronas. Make others enjoy it and that bunch, are quite an interest- ing novelty, and ought to do well in . s . A a " the movies. The unfamiliar names of 2 Vanity Fair will act as your passport to popularity. It wil these guests of our bedeviled country teach you how to write vers-libre on your shirt-bosom; how contribute helpfully to the unreality of r to wear a tiara without hatpins; and how to tell a Newport this whole: maze of (German spiesiand \ dowager from a sea-lion. In short, it will keep you in touch plottings. One still half expects our Th S : a : a ds Uncle Sam to yawn, sit up in bed, rub with everything stimulating, novel and amusing in t his eyes and try to call back the details | brilliant kaleidoscope of American life. of the dream he had. ;, Vanity Fair costs 25 cents a copy —$3 a year. There is more joyous fun-making and mental stimulation in one single copy than in fourteen yards of Bergson or Ralph Waldo Emerson. Yet, if you do not know Vanity Fair, or would like to know it better, you may have six whole copies for an insignificant dollar bill. Ge BILTMORE | Six Months of Vanity Fair for $1 Stop where you are! Tear off that Coupon! Where the social life of New York centers by day and evening VANITY FAIR, 449 Fourth Avenue, New York City , I want to go through life with my mind open; to keep my sympathies warm; to keep * touch with the newest and liveliest influences of modem life. Therefore, I want you tos CLOSE me the next six numbers of Vanity Fair. My favorite dollar is inclosed. TO ALL THEATRES AND SHOPS sssnseees DTCC sesesserereceseosceossee