Life — January 4, 1923 — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

Robert C. Benchley EMORIES are all very well in their place, and that, if anywhere is in a fortieth anniver- sary number. The present Editor could vie if he chose with Brander Matthews, “Droch”, and even E. S. M. in anecdotage and recollections of the speeding decades. He could tell of his first contribution to the paper in 1887, and of his acquaint- ance and friendship with all of his predecessors and most of the con- tributors; but he restrains the rush of reminiscence and turns the back- ward-looking eye forward for a ance at the present, and a pro- phetic glimpse into the future. Of course Lire is not what it used to be; and the mystery of that —which is no mystery at all—will be explained for many as_ they glance at the distorted creatures whose semblances adorn this and other pages. And yet whatever short-coming is betrayed in these presentments of Lire’s staff, none may be accused of vanity, for each Louis Evan Shipman Robert E. Sherwood freely accepted martyrdom at the point of Mr. Wyncie King’s pen; the wife of only one protesting! Oliver Herford, associate editor, the blithest and most youthful spirit in this company, deserves his fate, for in each of Lire’s forty volumes will be found testimony to some as- sault of his; his victims strew our pages. With a happy recusancy, he spurns reform, and has promised to contribute to the next forty. The rest of us are, in some sort, merely innocent bystanders, spatter- ed as it were, by the venomous ink intended for Herford. Casey the art editor, who guides and mitigates the steady flow of illustrations that pour through the offices, whose urbane re- fusal is more welcome than the curt acceptance of another ; Lucinda Flynn, gallantly spared from caricature, but nevertheless the invaluable guide and censor of every editorial activity; Benchley, Shakespearean, and 49er, who loves the theatre, and guys and guides the drama; Sherwood, the longest member of the staff, for some strange reason enamored of the movies; Hanemann, the youngest, whose philological studies have en- abled him to interpret New Yorkese, and rescue exotic fairy tales; Ware, political observer and ironist; Gray, Oliver Herford lynx-eyed, meticulous, final arbiter as to when an old joke is a new one; and finally to prove, if proof were needed, that the old tradition of Lire is perennial, are Gibson and Martin; philosophers; satirists, artists both of them. So there they are, joyous spirits all, never solemn except in their sense of obligation as temporary, fortunate custodians of Lire’s high, gay purpose. And what is that purpose? With the changing years, it has not changed. To paraphrase the definition of the founder of Lire it is to support wholeheartedly Cheer- fulness, Justice and Charity; to chastise Melancholy and Humbug; and may I add, to interpret this coun- try of ours to itself in terms of fun, gaiety and humor. Luckily the duty of performing this ambitious task is not entirely in the hands of the staff. Theirs to (Continued on page 36) comicbooks.com