Life, 1918-03-07 · page 27 of 40
Life — March 7, 1918 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"The Pithecanthropus Erectus Is O. K."**: Life ridicules a *Scientific American* writer for criticizing a short story's metaphorical comparison of the Sixth Avenue Elevated train to the prehistoric *Pithecanthropus Erectus*. The writer objected that the fossil creature was only five feet eight inches tall, not train-sized. Life's counterargument: feelings matter more than literal accuracy (citing Spencer and Shakespeare). The satire mocks scientific pedantry and humorless fact-checking of literary imagination. **"Fooling with G. H."**: This section critiques cartoonist George Harvey's *War Weekly* cartoon depicting President Woodrow Wilson reaching for an imperial crown while Uncle Sam and George Washington disapprove. Life warns readers not to be manipulated by such propagandistic imagery. **"The Voice of Humanity"**: An illustration shows mercy versus cruelty regarding the Red Cross's $100,000 funding for animal laboratory experiments—text urges helping animals rather than torturing them, expressing anti-vivisection sentiment.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Pithecanthropus Erectus Is O. K. WRITER in the Scientific Amer- ican is inordinately disturbed be- cause the lady author of a short story in a “literary magazine of large circu- lation and pretension” put into her story: “At Sixth Avenue, where the great skeleton of the clevated stalks mid- stream like a prehistoric Pithecanthro- pus Erectus . . This writer claims that, according to “the best information obtainable,” the P. E. was only about five feet eight inches high, and therefore should not be compared with the Sixth Avenue Elevated. Nonsense! Herbert Spencer, a scientific writer himself of no mean proportions, has stated that our feelings are much more important and more generally correct than our reason. Shakespeare is full of mistakes, but who cares? What does it really matter how tall a Pithecanthropus Erectus was in real life? Did the writer in the Scientific American ever sce one? The informa- tion he refers to so confidently was furnished by other scientists, whose fiction is duller than story writers’ only because it lacks plot. Now we should say that a Pithecan- thropus Erectus was just about as tall as the Sixth Avenue Elevated. That is the way his name feels. He may have started out in life only five feet eight inches high, but anyone who had a name like that is bound to grow in all these years. There is certainly some- thing wrong with us when the correct- ness of our short-story writers is being questioned by our scientific writers. Fooling with G. H. EORGE HARVEY'S War Weekly for February 16th has a cartoon W. Wilson reaching out for an im perial crown, while Uncle Sam waves him sternly back and G. Washington looks on with disappointment. Don't let those cartooner fellers make a guy of you, George. THE VOICE OF HUMANITY At the instigation of certain vivisectors the American Red Cross has given $100,000, of its money toward a laboratory where certain “ scientists ” may experiment on living animals, EL OF MERCY YOU SHOULD HELP HIM, NOT TORTURE HIM” sw came we HAL, Vie (Loo ar pr ) TIN | SoLDIER PET = EF THE AVIATOR “ APPEARANCES ARE— OFTEN DECEITFUL” comicbooks.com