Life, 1919-08-14 · page 6 of 44
Life — August 14, 1919 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine presents a character description of "Life" itself, personified as a spirited, multifaceted entity. The accompanying illustration shows a figure gazing out a window at a sunrise or landscape labeled "LIFE." The poem characterizes Life as paradoxical—simultaneously "subtle and vital," "cultured and clever," yet "wicked and charming." It's described as gossipy, witty, and irreverent, capable of both delicate elegance and crude impudence. This appears to be *Life* magazine's self-promotional material, written by a Mississippi college student. Rather than satirizing external targets, it's a playful self-description of the magazine's own editorial voice and values—positioning *Life* as sophisticated yet irreverent social commentary. The piece essentially defines the magazine's brand identity for readers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LOOKING INTO LIFE Is a task imposed upon all of us, whether we like it or not. Looking into a copy of Lire, however, is usually a pleasant task. A young friend of ours, a student in a Mississippi col- lege, was asked to write a brief description ot Lire’s character which appears below. Our one hope is that we may always live up to it. Life Subtle and vital and vivid and various, Pithy with gossip and sense and veracity, Brilliant and buoyant and thrillin; a Twitting the vanities, laughing at lies, Filled with delectable things mult Weaponed with wisdom and keen perspicacity, Lire is so breezy and bully and bad! Wicked and winning and full of surprise, Cultured and clever, with wit instantaneous, Lire tweaks the cloak from the shoulders of Versatile, iconoclastic and light, Haughtiness, Wicked and charmit contemporaneous— Stripping it naked of foible and fad, How can they keep it so brimmingly bright? Mocks it and shocks it with nonsense and naughtiness, Streams of impertinence, bubbling with epigram, Rippingly gay and deliciously bad Lit with lampoonery, quibble and pun, Sparkling with satire and piquant with pepigram, — Lire. is so racy and reckless and relevant, Pour from its pages in torrents of fun Filled with distinction and dashing delight, Age cannot wither its winking frivolity, How do they keep it so modishly elegant, Dull its acuteness or dampen its dash: Daringly flippant and gaily polite Drollery drips from its columns, and jolt Lire is so crammed with ‘the ways of mo- Leaps from its lines with a quip a flash. dernity This is the truth, Sir, I give you my _bond— 1 shall not flinch at the sweep of Eternity If we have Lire in the Purple Beyond Children like it; grown-ups like it Try a subscription and see for yourself Several sample copies will be sent to any address on receipt of ten cents or sixpence. 17 West 31st Street, New York One Year, $5.00. (Canadian, $5.52; Foreign, $ comicbooks.conmn