Life, 1920-05-13 · page 43 of 52
Life — May 13, 1920 — page 43: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains mixed content: a poem about economic deflation, an essay on inaccuracy, and advertisements. **The Poem "Advanced LIFE"** addresses the devalued dollar during economic hardship (likely post-WWI inflation). It uses sardonic wit: if the dollar has lost half its purchasing power, why not sell *Life* magazine for twenty cents instead of a dime? The joke is darkly ironic—accepting economic reality while mocking both the situation and those profiting from it ("grafters"). **"Inaccuracy"** is a brief moral essay criticizing people who state opinions as facts without verification. The examples mock human nature: the man who claims "nobody goes to church" because *he* stopped, or the divorcé who generalizes about women's faithlessness. **The Main Advertisement** promotes Whitman's chocolate samplers as superior gift-giving versus "just candy"—appealing to refined taste and thoughtfulness. **Minor Advertisements** include Frost Co.'s hose supporters and Boston Quarter margarine. The page reflects early 20th-century concerns: economic instability, social criticism through humor, and consumer product marketing.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
you'll grant, . Or eke some ph ilosophic scholar, ito view without a tear the scant Remains of our diminished dollar ; ted that emaciated dime— Reduced to half its purchase power— Ve deeply mourn. Oh, speed the time When prices fll and grafters cower! re’s a point of view st, meanwhile, | That brings 2 meed of consolation These dimes and dollars, cut in two, ‘Are worth but half their valuation; then if Lire should yet be sold For twenty ceuts—why, prithee, let it! be dime’s a nickel now, we're told, And so will still suffice to get it. JRL Inaccuracy Ninaccurate man caught in an inac- \ positive feeling of in not intend to be yassionately resents any always says, “T didn't: mean so many things we wish >, that it appears easy and atural io use facts to make them When it is discovered that, after all, have given are not facts at Lit may casily be too late to change. is why inaccuracies are often prac- vd by unscrupulous persons. Most inaccuracies on the part of really scentious persons, however, are due noral lassitude. They are too lazy to tack to the source. They accept what FROST CO., BOSTON, MAKERS OF Velvet Grip Hose Supporters for Women, Miases and Children Don’t give “just candy”— Give a Sampler! The Sampler is sold by our agents almost everywhere. STEPHEN F. WHITMAN & SON, Inc., Philadelphia, U.S. A. Sole makers of Whitman's Instantaneous Chocolate, Cocoa and Marshmallow Whip they hear, or else they assume that a cer- tain condition must be universal, just be- cause they themselves feel so. “Nobody goes to church any more," declares the man who has recently stopped going. “The majority of women are faithless creatures,” says the man who has just secured a divorce. “Any man over sixty can learn to play a fairly good golf game,” says the man over sixty who, by some fluke, has suc- ceeded once in an entire season in going around under ninety-five. A Frenen writer says that a girl is a per son we stop kissing when she is twelve and begin to kiss again after she is twenty. —Boston Transcript. Tur modern i of a good tenant is one who is willing to move on short not —Washington Star. comicbooks.com