Life, 1920-04-01 · page 36 of 60
Life — April 1, 1920 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"An Easter Maid"** is a poem celebrating a fashionable young woman ("Bessie") with desirable qualities—lovely eyes, graceful bearing, tiny feet. The accompanying illustration shows her in elegant Easter attire with a decorative fan and fashionable coat, embodying the idealized "Gibson Girl" aesthetic popular in early 20th-century America. The poem humorously catalogs her charms while playfully suggesting she's neither saint nor sinner, but charming enough to make a suitor overlook her faults. **"The Tyranny of Windows"** is an essay arguing that windows symbolize freedom and civilization—both literally (fresh air, light) and metaphorically (openness, hope). The author suggests a community's health correlates with how many windows remain open at night. Windows also matter to literature and storytelling. The piece is partly satirical social commentary on how such small details reveal character and condition. Both pieces reflect genteel, lighthearted *Life* magazine content aimed at educated readers interested in fashion, romance, and philosophical musings.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
612 “LIFE has many beaux an alluring pr x tints in it Of a bird after rain, Gone, and then he yes of the harebell hue th blue, er you The Tyranny of Windows V ITHOUT windows there would be no fresh-air fiends \ single window may make or mar a whole he small boys and lo would 1 ghost stories, ald the rain beat ¢ Neither drama, f thre wr just ing throw ind as for literature general, who does the window in Thrums? 1 room is her How he Keep 1 t-a-pal ars fashioned gracefully, f the sea ‘ou'd like to be Cheerily chatting Though sk (You she I can, with Say she’s no s You would give Fortune to you m diamond ay but the window is the last thing we adjust t of. The first of civilization. Consider the ymbolic it is of a dwarfed and sdirected life. The composite health of any community nber of its windows n almost be predicated upon the at are kept open Then there are s of the soul, without which t seller would be h the price of admissic Ww make the i of geometry easier? Anyone y ought to be made to suffer as ha