Life, 1919-01-02 · page 8 of 34
Life — January 2, 1919 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon ("Truthful"):** A hostess at a social gathering quotes her husband's compliment to a visiting clergyman, saying he never heard a better sermon in his life—though he hasn't been inside a church in twenty years. This satirizes social dishonesty and empty flattery in polite society. **"The Press Is Not Very Free":** This article argues that despite claims of press freedom, newspapers face practical restraints (profit pressures, decency standards) that limit their independence. It references specific examples from publications like the *New Republic*. **"Avoiding Lost Motion":** A humorous domestic exchange where a servant negotiates wages with her employer, haggling over household labor costs. **Right image:** "A Portrait of the Artist's Mother" appears to be a visual joke, though its specific reference remains unclear.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
TRUTHFUL Hostess (to the new clergyman) : MY HUSBAND SAYS HE NEVER HEARD \ BETTER SERMON IN Is Lire, “HE TOLD ME UE MADN'T BEEN INSIDE A CILURCHE IN TWENTY YEARS.” The Press Is Not Very Free EOPLE talk a lot about the freedom of the seas, but the freedom of the press is even more important, and scarcer. For the press is very moderately free. This does not mean George Creel, or gov- ernment restraints that will soon pass away. It means the restraints, almost inevitable, that are the price of profit, almost of existence, for newspapers All newspapers must have restraints. The late Masses professed to reject them all, and it has busted, and should have busted even sooner than it did. There are restraints of decency, and even of discretion, to which all publications and all people in civilized countries are sub- ject. But such restraints don’t bust newspapers. It is the restraints,“ which justify the wicked for reward” that do the damage. “The Blue Pencil” in the New Republic for December 14 gives a fair idea of how such restraints work AYTON: As soon as I marry your daughter my firm has promised to double my salary. Bicter: Well, let me think this over. T must look you up. * AML right, sir; but remember that it will cost you about fifty a week.” Avoiding Lost Motion Mistess: [ want a maid who will be faithful and not a time-waster. Can you promise that? Bkipcet: Indeed’n T'can. I’m that scrup'lous, ma’am, about wastin’ time that I make one job of prayin’ and scrubbin’, A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST'S MOTHER