Life, 1919-05-15 · page 48 of 50
Life — May 15, 1919 — page 48: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising**, featuring Manning-Bowman kitchen appliances (toasters, percolators, vacuum vessels). However, it includes a significant poem, "Violets," by Josephine Lytle Livingood that reflects **World War I-era sentiment**. The poem describes a woman encountering a street flower vendor, triggered by memories of finding violets with a lover. The emotional climax reveals she now wears a **service star**—a badge indicating she has lost a family member in WWI. The "soldier" passing by represents the war's human cost. The poem's meaning: a small sensory moment (violets) resurrects personal loss amid the casual indifference of wartime urban life. The service star transforms her from grieving civilian into visible war casualty—socially recognized but privately suffering. This was relevant to 1920s *Life* readers still processing post-war trauma and loss.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
anning- Quality | are ‘casters: Revenible Style, $7.00 up pular Style, 6.25 up The Electric Toaster that Turns the Toast When one side of the bread is toasted just right, turn the knob and the toast automatically turns over, This Reversible Toaster carries the 50-year old trade-mark of the manufacturer who developed the percolation principle of coffee making. 6 B. Irons, $6.35 Pot Percolator, Fluted, No. 11093, $13.00 Other Styles, $9.35 up BESIDES appearing on household helps for use with elec- tricity, gas, alcohol or on an ordinary range, the name “Manning, Bowman” appears also as a guarantee on a com- plete line of temperature-retaining vessels, known everywhere by the trade-mark HOTAKOLD. Some of these are illus- trated, They keep cold drinks cold for 72 hours and hot drinks hot for 24 to 36 hours, and are finished in nickel, silver, and colored enamels. See Manning-Bowman goods and Hotakold Vessels at electric shops, department and hardware stores, jewelers and novelty shops ~<HOTAKOLD >> Tilting Carafes, S$I0.75 ap For summer they are indispensable. ee Manning, Bowman & Co. Meriden, Conn. Makers of Household aed Table Appointments ‘a Nickel Plate, Copper and Alumicam Lunch Sets $3.25 $4.50 “LIFE: Violets HE could not know, the man upon the ste Who stood and cried his violets in the cold, That I would pass that way and catch the sweet, Faint fragrance of his wares, Nor could have told The reason of the mist before my eyes They were so sweet, the violets! We had found Myriads of them under pale spring skies, Just you and I together, when the ground Lay blue before us after April rain, And we were wand’ring by the drowsy strear Half lost in our own thoughts. And then again, I see you lean toward me through the ¢ Of glass and silver, and, a-dream, I hear, Like the old ghost of some forgotten 4 The throbbing of the violins, less cle: Than your low voice—and, half aware, The perfume of your violets at my belt. \ soldier jostles past me in the crowd— He and the flower vendor do not know Nor guess Aught of the pain—they only see the proud Glow in my eyes as, ere I turn to go, 1 touch the service star upon my dress. Josephine Lytle Livingood. ORTUNATE is the man who knows as much about himself as some woman thinks she knows « Peel ths leadi fei. Toey Pore safes On the eat be wost comicbooks.com