Life, 1918-03-07 · page 36 of 40
Life — March 7, 1918 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This story satirizes suburban social pressure and civic duty. Billington, a resident of a growing town, has refused several community requests: running for the Board of Education, joining the town council, and participating in the Civic League. His neighbor Dilber confronts him, claiming the community needs his participation. The satire targets Billington's self-centered apathy—he stands aloof on the train platform, indifferent to social obligation, only to be shamed into awareness that his refusals have made him a social outcast among his peers. The accompanying Vanity Fair advertisement (filling the page's right side) ironically undercuts this message: it promises readers sophistication and social success through magazine consumption alone, rather than actual civic engagement—making Billington's problem and the era's solution equally absurd. The cartoon mocks both suburban conformity *and* the shallow consumerism offered as its remedy.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
run for Freeholder, and you refused. peared into another car. Billington You wouldn't even join the Civic pondered all the way to the office and iti you th: Albemarle Park || League, I am not going to say any- through his morning’s mail on what His thing more now. Just think it over. Dilber had said. “Th Asheville. N.C. We want to be perfectly fair, of That night at dinner Mrs. Billington thous This charming English Ian holds course, but the whole county is roused ; said to him: This morning IT was guesse anarm lace thenearteal cul every citizen must do his share. Good called on by two ladies. What do you fe he vate le everyw! ” y ” . rtrd recede everye beret Sipe morning suppose they said? a other Centrated comfort. Before he knew it Billington was Billington, wise C set Pertect Golf in @ Perfect Climate. . ton; wiser: ‘than he’ seemed, belong “1 ‘Open All Year. alone. Dilber, having conveyed what answered: Write for Bookiat *L te Reserwarion was undoubtedly a warning, disap- “TM bet LT know; they came to tell In America-- An English Inn “WwW ber pec Pan renege seal Wh: Nine Months of Vanity Fair will Enable ‘you to} om keen | 5 5 ij , oA OR some weeks Billington—who Ignite a Dinner Party at Fifty Yards ing lived in a growing suburban wante town—had noticed a coolness among lon ; the ti his neighbors. Old friends, who were . a some in the habit of coming up and chat- . will b ting with him when he took his morn- ss ing train, no longer approached him. One morning, however, as he stood on the platform by himself, vainly won- dering what was the matter with the world, Dilber, who lived within three doors, came up and said significantly: “A word with you.” “Proceed,” said Billington, with proud coolness, as they entered the ees sank simultaneously into the Don’t be a Social Gloom. Don't be an intellectual Wet Blanket. Dat _Lam sorry to say it" said Dither, kill the dinner stone dead along about the chicken okra or the baked «i hut you are mot the right Kind ef 3 bass, Enjoy it all the way from the cocktails and caviar clear throught man we want in our community.” “What do you mean?” said Bil: | the coffee and Coronas. Make others enjoy it. lington. Dilber, who had evidently been com- Vanity Fair will ‘ey. lied missioned to do his duty, leaned over ‘ anity Fair will act as your passport to popularity. It and whispered: } teach you how to write vers-libre on your shirt-bosom; how “It's just this. You were asked to | 4 to wear a tiara without hatpins; and how to tell a Newpe! run for the Board of Education, and : ne pale you refused. You were requested to ‘ dowager from a sea-lion. In short, it will keep you in toud become a member of thé town council, ‘ with everything stimulating, novel and amusing in tk and you refused; you were asked to - brilliant kaleidoscope of American life. |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 nine whole ‘copies for an insignificant two dollar bill. Nine Months of Vanity Fair for §2 Ten if you mail the coupon now. DEACE| > Stop where you are! ;Tear off that coupon! VANITY FAIR, 19 West 4th Street, New York City Le I want to go through life with my mind open: to keep my sympathies warm; to keep in touch wi newest and liveliest influences of medern life. Therefore, I want you to send me the neat nine oumbeo ! Vanity Fair, My favorite two dollar bill is enclosed (or) I will send you $2 on receipt of your bill. CONVALESCING ? ss ae Pe ETT Sdieestews State