Life, 1917-06-07 · page 11 of 42
Life — June 7, 1917 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two separate pieces: **Top:** A bird's-eye illustration of an American town with orderly grid streets, houses, and residents. This appears to be a generic "American town" depiction rather than satire of a specific place. **Bottom Left:** An article titled "Summer-Resort Architecture" by Kenneth Roberts. It critiques the architectural style of old summer resort homes—describing their "ginger-bread" aesthetic with "care-free cupolas, gay porch railings, ecstatic spires" as frivolous. Roberts argues these structures are unsound and will be destroyed, warning that "Hun battle cruisers" will inevitably shell them, destroying "pernicious examples of summer-resort architecture." **Bottom Right:** An unrelated cartoon showing a doctor and patient, with dialogue about a bachelor's misfortune when dying—his name dies with him. The summer-resort critique reflects period anxieties about World War I and architectural taste, mocking Victorian excess.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ref GS, ixns BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AN AMERICAN TOWN Summer-Resort Architecture HYSICIAN: Your case is such, madam, that time alone will effect a cure. Mrs. Ranpatt: Then it is hopeless, for I never have even five minutes. WING to the fact that most summer resorts were founded as far back as the year of the small apples or the year of the big fog, the architecture of the average summer-resort residence belongs to the ginger-bread or fret- saw school. It is possible that the architects and builders of that period attempted to express the vacation spirit which caused these houses to be built by enlivening the exterior of the homes with care-free cupolas, gay porch- railings, ecstatic spires and spindles, and hysterical dormers, gables, lattice-work and thingumajigs. Whatever the rea- sons for the flimsy, lace-paper appearance of the old-style summer-resort dwelling, it is now known that the reasons were not sound. In fact, members of the Glad cult are actually looking forward to possible shelling of our de- fenceless shore resorts by Hun battle cruisers, because the shelling will inevitably result in the destruction of some of the more pernicious examples of summer-resort architec- “THE WORST PART OF BEING A BACHELOK 1S THAT WHEN 1 ture: DIE MY NAME DIES WITH ME,” ‘ - “WHAT IS YOUR NAME?” Kenneth Roberts. “ sMiTH.” comicbooks.com