Life, 1919-09-04 · page 13 of 48
Life — September 4, 1919 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine (page 395) contains a satirical cartoon and accompanying editorial commentary about spiritualism and psychic phenomena. **The Cartoon:** Shows an adult man in a hat speaking to a small boy on a street. The caption reads: "Little Boy, do you know who I am?" "No, sir; but Mother's inside; maybe she can tell you." **The Satire:** The joke mocks spiritualism and mediums—the adult represents someone claiming mysterious or special identity, while the boy's innocent response suggests the mother consults mediums/spiritualists who might "know" unknowable things. **Context:** The text criticizes the proliferation of spiritualist literature, "automatic writings," and psychic claims gaining popularity post-WWI. The editorial dismisses these as unverifiable nonsense exploited by magazines and publications seeking credibility through association with occult interests.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIFE: ITTLE ROY, PO YOU KNOW WHO LAM , SK, RUT MOTILPR’S INSIDE; MAYRE SHE CAN Tent you.” same field, and has lately had several articles about curious exploits of mediums and notable instances oi writings. tomatic The Cosmopolitan Mayazine is running a series of disclosures by Basil King, the novelist; Conan Doyle preaches his New Revelation in Hearst's and in the news- papers, and the Metropolitan, which has shown sympathy for two years past with the spiritist activities and has had es about them by Booth Conan Doyle, Adams Cram, Parking has now in progress a narrative, by Ralph of the Glastonbury Abbey give up experiments in inducing the information for the guidance of the There must be many other magazines implicated in atten- tion to these psychical and spiritist proceedings Lately held so much disapproval by cautious persons who valued their reputation for common sense. Reputable characters ul publications are gradually being drawn into contem plation of them, puzzled and incredulous as yet, but ine quisitive. The literature of the subject increases so fast and is so much read that it be who claim to be awake tc ste he impolitic for folks The New York Public ignore it 395 Library reports its readers as “turning from books on the war to those on South America, the export trade, S$ and the Spanish language, religion, spiritualism, psychic phenomena, applied psychology and technical subjects.” The librarian in charge of the Central Circulation Braneli reports that readers are demanding books on all p f religion, are eager to know how great a part re to play in our reconstructed world, and are “intensely interested in spiritual subjects of all kinds, and are turning with new eagerness to the writings of Sir Oliver Lodge and his investigations and. speculations into the spirit world.” This is scandalous, of course, to people who insist on keeping their feet on the actual earth, but the prospect is that we shall have more of it before we have less. One hears there is much more in England than here For people who don’t know anything at all about these burgeoning interests it may be suitable to explain that the andation for them seems to have been laid hy the studies and reports of the psychical research societies, extending over forty or fifty years; that the interest in all such mat- ters has been immensely stimulated by the war and its attending bereavements and hy the present parlous state of society, and that the most popular disclosures that attend this movement are those that come in the form of illed “automatic writings,” which have been cropping up of late like mushrooms in all parts of the country They purport to be records, by sensitives or mediums, of formations communicated through them but not derived from their own minds, nor from any mundane source that they know of. That there are a lot of these communica- nis is unquestionable. That the persons through whom they come are honest as a rule, and not consciously deccit- ful, is little doubted. That some of the communications FIND THE LANDLORD WHO KECENTLY RAISED THE TE cov's KENT APFIC comicbooks.com