Life, 1918-09-05 · page 34 of 34
Life — September 5, 1918 — page 34: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines two distinct elements: a **Forhan's toothpaste advertisement** (left) and a **Vanity Fair magazine promotion** (right), with a brief editorial piece on dog population statistics in between. **The Forhan's ad** uses health warnings typical of early 20th-century advertising—claiming the product prevents pyorrhea (gum disease) and tooth decay. It targets middle-class consumers anxious about dental health. **The Vanity Fair promotion** mocks social pretension through illustrated vignettes of dinner parties. It satirizes aspiring sophisticates who worry about etiquette ("Don't be a Social Gloom," "Don't kill the dinner stone dead") and offers absurd tips like wearing tiaras without hatpins and writing vers-libre poetry on shirt-bosoms. The satire targets status-conscious readers seeking to appear cultured and urbane. **"The Dog Population" section** reports on statisticians debating whether America has 4-30 million dogs, with various critics calculating their economic burden on the nation—a lighthearted critique of pointless statistical debates during wartime (reference to Kaiser suggests WWI era). The page reflects Life's role as satirical commentary on American consumer culture and social anxiety.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Gum decay causes tooth number of dogs in Massachusetts, com- puting from license returns, and adding decay forty per cent. more for unlicensed dogs, we believe there are less than four mil- lion dogs in the entire country. Could we spare some of them? Without a EALTHY teeth Gaabe | So could we also spare a few, at need healthy least, of those who see in the dog only gums to hug them. an animal that consumes food. Thou- Ise they will loosen sands of owners of dogs to-day are go- in Pyorrhea. Tiny ing without something they would like openings will come in thevisel es to iat tap for the small ex- ANSHieR Peace create the gums to act as pense of keeping their pets. the) sstewaye of die Oke Die Aniiaals, “oon! Nice pussy! Let's axwireate .” ease germs, which infect the joints or] Saar Months of Vanity Fair will Enable you to ailments Ignite a Dinner Party at Fifty Yards Forhan’s prevents Pyor- thea, if used in time and used consistently, Nomere toothpaste does. Are your gums tender gums? | Are they bleeding gums? IF so, you are certain to have Pyorthea { Riggs’ Dis- ease). Four out of five people who are over forty have it To you we earmestly recommend Forhan's. It preservesthe gums, which hold the teeth secure. Brush your teeth with it. Forhan’s cleans the teethscientifically—keeps them white and free from tartar, Don't be a Social Gloom. Don't be an intellectual Wet Blanket. anf gematriniage bs Don’t kill the dinner stone dead along about the chicken okra Fothan's and consulta) or the baked sea bass. Enjoy it all the way from the cocktails dentist immediately for special reatment’ | and caviar clear through to the coffee and Coronas. Make 30c and 60enbes Others enjoy it. All druggists FORHAN CO. Vanity Fair will act as your passport to popularity. It will 202 oth Ave N.Y: teach you how to write vers-libre on your shirt-bosom; how eee | to wear a tiara without hatpins; and how to tell a Newport dowager froma sea-lion. In short, it will keep you in touch The Dog Population \ ‘ with everything stimulating, novel and amusing in the é : & brilliant kaleidoscope of American life. Several would-be statisticians have & broken out of late with wonderful dis- Bs plays of figures. A certain Dr. Kane (not Cain. af Pennsstvania appears in Vanity Fair costs $3 a year. There is more joyous fun- print saying there are ten million dogs : : wee i CRECURMEASSER Hel wou TIce re making and mental stimulation in one single copy than see them exterminated, Another de- in fourteen yards of Bergson or Ralph Waldo Emerson. tractor of the dog, in North Carolina, Yet, if you do not know Vanity Fair, or would like to scarcely so modest, puts the number at k . b hi h I 5 fe thirty million, and. afirming it costs st. | KNOw it better, you may have five whole copies for an teen cents a day per dog, finds that it insignificant dollar bill—six, if you mail the coupon at (~~ costs the United States as much to keep once. vu its dogs as it does the Kaiser to feed . his army. Still another gentleman, this . 7 time a Virginian, discovers that his state Five Issues of Vanity Fair for $1 is paying more for the maintenance of Sis, if av bowae its dogs than for the entire state govern- NT FOR Me je coupon sow. ment, including its whole educational Stop where you are! Tear off that coupon! syste Perhaps on the basis of this - _ mane OE it is, Even then we are VANITY FAIR, 19 West 44th Street, New York City y for Virginia I want to go through life with my mind open; to keep my sympathies warm; to keep in touch with he United States Department of the newest and liveliest influences of modern life. | Therefore, | want you to send me the nett vE fem o jollar Agriculture writes us, under date of May E numbers of Vanity Fair. | will remit $1 on receipt of your bill (OR) my favorite inclosed. 1 understand that if this order is received in time, you will send me a complimentary 25, 1918, that “no census of dogs has copy of the current issue, making SIX issues in all, ever been taken.” Where do these peo- ple who would have the dog destroyed get their figures? On the basis of the comicbooks.com