Life, 1917-05-10 · page 36 of 46
Life — May 10, 1917 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct satirical pieces: **1. The Pantasote Advertisement (Left)** A luxury car advertisement disguised as editorial content, celebrating expensive automobiles cruising down palm-lined avenues in fashionable winter resorts. The copy lists prestigious car brands (Pierce-Arrow, Locomobile, Marmon, etc.), emphasizing that wealthy owners select Pantasote—an expensive convertible top material. The satire is implicit: Life presents this consumerist display of wealth and leisure as noteworthy social commentary on the wealthy's seasonal migration to resort destinations. **2. "Rascality" Essay (Bottom)** A satirical piece distinguishing between "positively disgraceful rascality" (criminal behavior requiring police control) and "eminently respectable rascality" (socially acceptable dishonesty among the wealthy, carefully hidden from public view). The essay argues that the latter—the respectable crime of the upper classes—causes more societal damage than vulgar criminality, yet escapes scrutiny. This critiques how wealthy wrongdoing remains invisible while poor crime receives harsh punishment. The page exemplifies *Life*'s mocking tone toward American class distinctions and hypocrisy.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“ELE E* ©Down-the- avenue- } of palms -where singing birds echo the humming molor and where the tropic sunis lempered by sofl sea breeses- there flows a mighty army of molors drafted almost exclusively from the beaw monde. Thelype of motorcar that winlers in Souther chimes and fashionable sesorls generally cames a lop of = Genuine ‘This lop material withstands the fiercely bealing rays of lropical suns as staunchly as it does the frostskeetand snow of north- em winlers. Pantasole.the most expensive lop materials assocaled with and used on the best Motor Cars. PIERCE-ARROW PAIGE-STRATFORD LOCOMOBILE REO I9I7 SIX CHALMERS CHANDLER WESTCOTT MARMON. COLUMBIA HUDSON PREMIER WHITE MERCER "Avoid misrepresentation— & even though tt be uninten- tional. Look for this label on tops representea as Pantasote. ASCALITY is of two prime species: positively disgraceful rascality and eminently respectable rascality. Eminently respectable rascality is that rascality which is fashionable at any given period or era. Positively disgraceful rascality is that which is deplored and frowned upon by those who practice eminently respectable rascality. Positively disgraceful rascality is difficult to control and requires a great outlay for detectives, jails and other criminological paraphernalia. Eminently respectable rascality is hard to control because its real inwardness is always carefully guarded from the public at large. Consequently eminently respectable rascality is not deplored except by a few keen observers who see in it the chief underlying cause of the more vulgar and more patent variety of rascality. < Herbert yton London Cigarettes Falk Tobacco Co, sawestds ogra The Greatness of Plato T' secret of Plato's great» in the fact that he knew ju conduct an argument. He, of all men, recognized the fact that if want to produce an argument that is worth anything you must yourself write all sides of it, Escaping in that way all recalcitrant elements, you can invest the opposing claims with the requisite degree of weakness, and thus reach any desired conclusion whatsoever. But as soon as two or more per- sons enter an argument, hope of suc- cessful eventuation vanishes, Nobody sticks to the subject, everybody talks at cross purposes, and in the end the contenders are in a more perfect con- dition of disagreement than they were at the outset. That's why ‘joint debates are always such unsai tory phenomena. In love, two is said to be company and three a crowd, but in argumentative matters one is company, two a crowd and three a howling amorphous mob. Be ye therefore advised. If you want an argument done right, do it yourself. “Monumental in its plan and significan Superbly illustrated, in 13 8vo. Edited by the world’s greatest scholars. “Oz! of the most important enterprises of this age’ —Prof. George F. Moore, LL.D., of Harcart “Suitable for a gentleman's library ratherthantt stricted to that of the scholar.”—N. Y. Eve. Pos PROSPECTUS ON REQUEST MARSHALL JONES CO., Publishers 212 Summer Street Boston, Mas} with he hi your