Life, 1922-09-07 · page 40 of 44
Life — September 7, 1922 — page 40: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising**, dominated by a large W.L. Douglas shoe company ad featuring the company founder's portrait. The ad emphasizes direct factory sales and single-profit margins. The satirical content appears in two pieces: 1. **"To Parents"** (right column): A tongue-in-cheek advisory that humorously endorses "swiping" (stealing) clothes from schoolmates as character-building. It suggests that a boy who successfully steals from peers shows resourcefulness and will become a bank president—obviously mocking both parental naivety and school catalog recommendations. 2. **"The Same Things Still Get Them"** (lower section): An anecdotal commentary on social change. An older businessman reflects that thirty years ago, sons respectfully learned business (safe combinations) from fathers; now sons avoid the family business entirely. Yet at county fairs, he notes, fundamental values persist—all these modernized men still gather for horse races. It's nostalgic satire about progress and lost traditions. Both pieces use irony to comment on American society, youth behavior, and changing values in the early 20th century.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE W LDOUGLAS $5.00 $§.00 $700 & $800 SHOES sits W. L. Douglas $7.00 and\WEAR W.L. DOUGLAS|W. L. Douglas $4.00 and SHOES AND SAVE MONEY. $8.00 shoes are absolutely the best shoe values for the money in this country. $4.50 shoes for boys, best in quality,bestin style,best all around shoes for boys. They aremade of the best and finestleathers,|It is worth dollars for you to remember by skilled shoemakers, all working to the best shoes for the price that money can buy. The quality is unsurpassed. The smart make/that when you buy shoes at our stores YOU PAY ONLY ONE PROFIT. No matter where you live, shoe dealers can styles are the leaders in the fashion centers ith W. of America, Only by oxamining them can|*urpu 70 wih. WL: Douglas shoes. They you appreciate their wonderful value. Shoes of equal quality cannot be bought elsewhere at anywhere near our prices. W. L. Douglas shoes are put into all of our 108stores at factorycost. We donot make one cent of profit until the shoes are sold to you. ‘| A minute saved isa minute gained ‘ON HAVING WHAT YOU WANT. inehues NORTH CAROLINA Winter Homes For Sale and for Rent A. S. NEWCOMB & COMPANY in New York. Insist upon having W. L. Douglas shoes with the name and retail price stamped on the sole. Do not takea substitute and y extra profits. Order direct from the factory and save money. Write for Catalog Today Pres. W. L. Douglas Shoe Co., 147 8park St.,Brockton, Mass. The Same Things Still Get Them “ HEN I began to sell goods in this territory thirty years ago the sons of the merchants came down at seven o’clock in the morn- ing to sweep out; to-day a merchant knows he’s lucky if his sons get to bed by seven in the morning. It used to be a proud day for the fathers when they could teach their boys the combination of the safe; it would be a prouder day now if they dared to do it. “Sometimes a prosperous old fel- low would decide to let his boy go to college, but he always hoped he would come back and go into the business; now he is afraid he will. “T never had to look anybody up at the bank in this town. I could drift down to the postoffice of an eve- ning and find out all I wanted to know in ten minutes. But the place has grown so that you might as well try to get chummy with the clerk at the New Trianon hotel as with the postmaster. “But when you go out to the fair- grounds you see that Jonesville hasn’t changed at heart. These big men may ride in high-powered cars, but they are all in the grandstand for the 2:20 trot.” McC. H. To Parents At s as to outfitting your boy for going away to school this fall. The school catalogue will tell you in wearisome detail it is nec. essary to provide your son with three pairs of shoes, one pair of overshoes, six shirts, twelve handkerchiefs, ete, Pay no attention to the catalogue, Send the lad away in the clothes he wears. If he has the right stuff in him, he will soon “swipe” a complete wardrobe from his schoolmates, and as occasion demands, he will continue to swipe the necessities of apparel from the sons of parents who believe everything they read and don’t know a joke even when it’s in a catalogue, The difference between swiping and stealing, while vague to the parental eye, is perfectly obvious to the schoolboy’s eye. If your son is a prize swiper, it does not mean, neces- sarily, that the penitentiary will be his future home. Rather, he will be immediately respected by his fellows, and in the future he will in all prob- ability be president of the First Na- tional Bank of your city. <\t the least, he will be mayor. Certainly, great honor and emoluments will accrue to him. Meanwhile, be proud of his budding abilities and do not cramp their development by sending him what he can swipe for himself. JM, | Picturesque Log Fires Fairy Fuel sprinkled on your log fire beautiful s producal burni te blue of th of the sea a and gold of sun, Package postpaid $ Pohlson or both sent request. To FreeBooklet—"A CLEAR "Tons SKIN"—telling how cured myself after being afflicted fifteen year E. S. GIVENS, 225 Chemical Blig.,.Kans2s City Ma. sen N refine sensit man < a des busine Atte breath of yo washit how neglec tion! The one as the sidiou with | You you ¢ subjec —may to ca may t and th with | Hal ly ten Smoki om has bi halito ganic comicbooks.com