Life — October 7, 1920 — page 16: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“LIFE. nearly human. Imperfect, of course, like all humanity, but with a claim to be considered as having a share in a fallen humanity That is why it is misunderstood. It is not blindly making an infernal nuisance of itself when it pounds and hammers. It is merely exercising the right to assert its personality, which is one of the standard methods of conduct of the time. Any problem play will tell you that. Really, the radiator is not try- ing to be unpleasant. Perhaps such noisy displays are merely fits of good humor, bits of playfulness. That is the way with the greater forces of nature. They are a bit rude, but they, too, may be misunderstood. For all we know, the earthquake may be the world’s hearty laughter. Nowadays there is so much that is wonderful. When, indeed, so much is being revealed and so much is coming to us from the beyond, what is not pos- sible and probable? Another hypothe: When the psychic offers such mani- festations in chairs and tables, why has the radiator been over- looked? It is clearly much better equipped Yor serving as a means of communication than a library table or a smoking- room armchair. Its gurglings and murmurings are probably LOCAL GossiP inarticulate attempts at locution. Indeed, one might almost say Reuben Trotter didn't know Si Whipple was rabbitin’ that one can frequently perceive and hear its efforts to address down in the swamp last Tuesday, an’ Rube he wuz us vocally and verbally, which is more than can be affirmed of Berousin pie lores aeareae he almost. gut in range. any “other article of furniture in the house. Yes, yes, the run, He wa'n’t hurt none to speak of; jest some radiator is misunderstood. In exactly what way, it is not alto- gether realized as yet, but in some way surely scratches on his face where he run through the first charge of shot. Rube says he wa'n't skeered; only he ; figgered he oughter git out and let Si shoot without George Hibbard. a-gittin’ in the way; sed probably Si wouldn't want ter waste a lot of bird-shot on him, shot costin’ so high, an’ sech, so he left. Misunderstood HE savage who first lit a fire with a dry stick and dry leaves remains unknown. The individual—a very general term which implies nothing—who invented or introduced or inflicted the radiator on the world is equally obscure. Perhaps, after all, this is as well for him. Still, he inaugurated an era as much as the fire-making aboriginal, The radiator is indeed the per- + fect flower of the full growth of this latter-day civilization. The radiator, though, is misunderstood, and that is the reason these lines are written, At this time, when humanitarianism is so marked, such a state of affairs is terrible. There is a cruelty in misappreciation. The radiator has suffered from this, and it should not be allowed. To be sure, there is no one who has not suffered from the radiator; but that makes no difference. The suffering would not have been so great, perhaps, with a more sympathetic consideration of the cause of it. In the first place, anything which has worked such a great change as the radiator should be treated with respect. To swear at it is unfitting and—useless. To kick it is a still greater exhibition of bad taste and misdirected effort. One does not swear at the law of gravitation or kick it. One does not in- dulge in an outburst of temper in regard to the tides of the ocean or any one of the great forces and facts of nature. One is mild and meek before them, and that is the fitting attitude before the radiator, which is one of them. Not that one should exactly deify the radiator and make it wholly a fetish, as an early barbarian would have done. There is a limit beyond which humanity should not go, out of self-respect, even in regard to the radiator. Still, to place oneself on hands and knees before it, as one often does, is something which should not be neglected under the circumstances. Science has shown a tendency to ascribe life to stone and metal, and the radiator has come really as a justification. The radiator is not inhuman, as some have considered it, but very THE GIRL HE LEFT BEHIND HIM comicbooks.comy)