Life, 1919-09-04 · page 4 of 48
Life — September 4, 1919 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical diagram showing *Life* magazine's internal operations as an industrial machine. The cartoon depicts various departments (Contribution, Editorial, Circulation) as mechanical gears and conveyor systems, with human figures operating them. The accompanying text humorously explains the magazine's subscription pricing structure: one dollar for new subscribers (higher in Canada/abroad due to postage), five dollars yearly for U.S. readers. The business office presents these "hideous commercial details" as necessary evils, joking they keep quality content affordable "at any price." The machine metaphor satirizes how a satirical magazine itself operates as a commercial enterprise—ironically treating its own profit-driven mechanics as the subject of satire, similar to how it mocks other institutions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
10 cons a Cor S omsrass a Yean “OBEY THAT IMPULSE’ THE CREATION OF LIFE What follows is declared by our offensive business office to be highly important, although we confess that these hideous commercial details do not interest us. First, they say that the one dollar is only for new sub- scribers and that the price in Canada and foreign countries is slightly higher because of postage. Second, they say that five dollars a year means only for the United States and its possessions. (Read, if you can, the terms in the coupon.) At any rate, considering the continuous trouble we have in keeping anything good from getting into this paper, we think it cheap at any price. / ; &y ) ii ee “Biter y4 Enclosed find One Dol- Jar (Canadian $1.13, Foreign $1.26). “Send Lire for three months to Several sample copies will be sent to Open only to new subscribers: 10 any address on receipt of ten cents or scriptions renewed at this rate. Sixpence. 3 Af: LIFE, 17 West 31st Street, New York VA One Year, $5.00. (Canadian, $5.52; Foreign, $6.04.) ah comicbooks.conim