Life, 1919-01-30 · page 33 of 34
Life — January 30, 1919 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Article: "Leave It Alone, Edgar!"** This satirizes poet Edgar Lee Masters and Chicago's business establishment. The Chicago Chamber of Commerce pressured local writers—particularly Carl Sandburg and Masters—to write less critically about the city, fearing damage to business interests. Masters responded by publishing "Spoon River Revisited," depicting the fictional town's "reform": closed saloons, removed race tracks, and a librarian with false teeth now running things. Life's critique is sharp: Masters' attempt to please Chicago by showing improvement actually *ruins* his original work's artistic power. The joke mocks both Masters' capitulation to commercial pressure and the absurdity of the Chamber's request—that artists self-censor for profit. **Secondary Content:** The page also includes advertisements (Dr. Sheffield's Creme Dentifrice) and a "Recipe for a Welcome Home" satirizing patriotic fervor around returning soldiers, plus a cartoon about wind and cold weather. The satire targets artistic compromise and commercialism in American culture.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE Leave It Alone, Edgar! VIDENTLY the Chicago Chamber of Commerce has ked the poets of that city to please be less bitter and and blunt. Unquestionably the savage temper of the Chicago bards, Mr. Sandburg and others, was hurting busi- What Chicago ought to do is to buy up a few of the rf s arine singers, like Mr. John K. Bangs or Miss Margaret Widdemer, and hire them to live in Chicago and 1 duleet string. the Chicago realists are dissolving a little sugar in their hemlock, for we notice the latest poem by Mr. Edgar Lee Masters in the New Republic, a-suave journal that is foal y good reading if you give it a chance. Masters ago lawyer who became famous by his autopsy oon River, and now he has outsatired satire by River Revisited.” We are sorry he had to paw 1e sad hones of Spoon River, even to please a cham- commerce, for he has come near spoiling the de- > Haver of human frustration that his book left in We had greatly enjoyed his picture of that able and degraded village, which was so pleasing a cle in contrast to the tedious panorama of New Eng- virtue. But now, in his revisit, Mr. Masters finds that 1 Kiver has reformed, The race track and the,saloons the poker joints have been closed, the local Bolsheviki ridden a fence rail, the movies have been denatured, « female librarian with false teeth is running things. ad! Too bad! © trouble with Mr. Masters’ new poem is that. its re is a bit too sharp. When you try to sharpen a pencil nely the point breaks. Poets who have done !I should be locked up to keep them from spo Recipe for a “Welcome Home” ‘O one gathering of citizens add a large pinch of grati- tude, Flavor with spirits of democracy and stir vigor- ously with the ladle of patriotism until class distinction nd other foreign matter rise to the surface to be skimmed \llow the mixture to simmer slowly over the fire of pation, and serve piping hot, garnished with flags and the moment the train carrying the boys pulls into ation, ont ibis telsnow cresting divers or Rees es 2 LLL AAA Pup: coopNess! HOW THE WIND HOWLS To-NIGHT! Skating LEAN, white, sound teeth always excite comment and Bet it is a greater pleasure to have them than to look The price—cleansing thoroughly twice daily with a dentifrice that removes the food deposits and polishes and whitens the teeth—is trivial Users of Dr. Sheffield’s Créme Dentifrice enjoy that sense of secv which results from using a dentifrice perfected by the oldest tooth | manufacturers in America, a tooth paste that gives feeling of dependability because of its efficiency and pur with the latest accepted theories of dental sc Dr. Sheffield’s Créme Denti frice is all that a tooth paste should be. 25¢ for a large tube represents ‘ALL the value that a tooth paste ca have. Get a tube from your d today. eR aarne s/ A NEW IDEA IN BINDERS Until now LIFE has never been able to supply its readers with an entirely satisfactory binder for the convenient and safe preset vation of the copies of the journal The new invention expands or contracts at will, and makes a convenient volume to handle, as well as being very simple in operation It is "handsomely made, the outside being black Buckram with cover d gilt, and is made to hold a full year’s copies of LI nt post free to any address in the United States on receipt of $1.50 LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY 17 West Thirty-first Street New York City comicbooks.com