Life, 1919-12-25 · page 13 of 37
Life — December 25, 1919 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes editorial decision-making at a modern magazine. The sketch "Scene in a Sanctum" depicts a conversation between an editor and his assistant (Blinks) about article selection. The satire mocks the tension between literary quality and commercial appeal: Blinks argues readers want "jam and honey"—escapist content—while the editor insists on substantive pieces about "current politics or actual social problems." Blinks counters that serious content like spiritualism articles and Mars science pieces bore readers, proposing instead lightweight romance stories like "Her First Kiss." The cartoon's joke: magazine editors face constant pressure to prioritize entertainment value over meaningful journalism to maintain readership and profitability. The China fishbowl illustration appears unrelated—possibly an advertisement or filler content typical of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Scene in a Modern Sanctum “wr. f course it'll be a fiction num- ber!" cried Moush, the great mag: vine editor, “Every number's a fiction number.” He was talking to Blinks, his assistant “But don’t you think we ought te load in just a little ballast of something worth while pleaded Blinks. * This eternal carge story slush makes and there must be some read- ers who'd care for a real in- formative article now and then.” No!” shouted — Moush. “The day for serious articles on any subject has gone by. We're not trying to educate the American public. We're trying to sell our magazine.” “But people just can’t live on jam and honey—nothing but honey and jam! For the very public’s sake, we ought to put in a little plain bread.” “Bread! What do you mean by bread?” “Oh. T don’t suggest anything that would make ‘em really think!—anything about cur rent politics or actual social problems. But there's travel biography history criti- cism Mr. Moush frowned. “Didn't we have two payes of bunk about spiritualism month?” he demanded But Mr. Blinks shrugged. “ That was only love stuff in disguise,” he insisted; “co ications from a departed lover two his ex- wife.” “Last year we had some so-called science in an article on the inhabitants of Mars,” persisted Moush “Oh, that sort of rot i ple’s intelligenc “AIT propose is something + ably solid, though not heavy— travel article, or that clever book re- view by Makem.” “Book review!" shouted = Mr. Moush. “Who cares anything about books! Oh, well.” he added, after a moment's profound thought, “put that story of ‘Her First Kiss’