Life, 1921-05-26 · page 5 of 36
Life — May 26, 1921 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents a poem titled "The Magician" by Vivian Yeiser Laramore, celebrating life's ability to transform the mundane into beauty—roses from clay, tears into rain, laughter from sorrow. The illustration below depicts two elegantly dressed women in flowing garments with a figure in dark clothing between them, captioned "NOT GUILTY." The dialogue reveals a social scandal: Helen asks who spread an "awful story about Belle," while Millie claims ignorance, stating "it wasn't a secret when it started out." This satirizes how gossip and rumors spread through society—particularly among women—with the implication that secrets inevitably become public knowledge. The "magician" metaphor suggests life transforms private matters into public scandal, paralleling the poem's theme of life's subtle, unavoidable transformations.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
&. Life tee The Magician IFE has such a subtle way Of forming roses out of clay; Of taking tears that seemed in vain And making of them April rain; Of getting from a heedless rafter Echoes of dead bits of laughter; Of welding in a sunset sea Lost loveliness and imagery ; Of making out of crawling things Butterflies with airy wings. Life has such a subtle way Of turning darkness into day ; Of bringing music, ocean-old, To newness of a tale untold; And then, grown jealous of its trust, Of changing roses back to dust. Vivian Yeiser Laramore. NOT GUILTY Helen: wo Put in circULAtt Millie: Vm sure 1 voN'T KNOW. ION THAT AWFUL STORY ABOUT BELLE? IT WASN'T A SECKET WHEN IT STARTED OUT, comicbooks.com