Life, 1924-03-20 · page 10 of 42
Life — March 20, 1924 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features "The One-Hundred-Per-Cent. Bard," a satirical poem about modern poets. The main cartoon shows a man in formal attire standing before a factory building, captioned "Owner of Child Labor Factory: Gad! It makes the blood tingle—the very romance of it all." The satire mocks the contradiction between romantic poetry ideals and industrial capitalism's harsh realities. The poet-speaker claims faith in their craft while defending verse's social value, yet the accompanying image exposes the brutal irony: actual "romance" exists in exploitative child labor factories. The piece critiques how poets sanitize or ignore industrial society's moral corruption, using their art to justify or ignore social injustice rather than challenge it.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
USE, will you list to the plaint of a bard Who would be free from poetical fetters? ay of a Keats or a Shelley is hard— me enlist with the vibrant of red-blooded vim, Let me possess all the punch that's available, All that I ask is the power to limn Lyrics or lines that are readily salable. Give mea asure (THe Muse Starts to Work.) I am a Poet: I have FAITH in my goods! } (| feta he-men—have a false idea of poets—a concep- tion handed down through the ages since the ¢ lays when minstrels were known as long-haired dreamers. But that has passed. To-day, poets are salesmen just like other folks. Elbert | H. Gary sells steel, Harvey Firestone sells tires, the live y modern minister sells religic I sell VERSE Poets don’t build bridges or run railroad trains across the mighty Rockies. But they do bring good cheer into the hearts of humanity. And that is SERVICE So shake the idea that I'm a dead one. I'm not. I'ma booster for my own stuff just as you are—and you—and you! Tam a Poet I have FAITH in my goods! (Tue Muse Retires.) Permanent Headlines Siuses:sou' have. gicew:-new hope'to my puree; 'ALKING Motion Pictures Perfected. You are a knockout, and loudly I'll yell it Dwelli Rents Are Advanced. But, since you've Bureau of Statistics Reports Increased Cost of Living. Maybe you'll President Urges Strict Enforcement of Volstead Law. Cabinet Member to Resign. William Randolph Hearst Is Candid. Europe Wants American Aid. Bandits Rob Cigar Store James M. Beck Talks Taxes to Be Lower Next Year. 4 Munsey Kills Another Newspaper John D. Gives Away Dimes. Labor Unions Demand Higher Wa Change of Government in Greece. W. G. Owner of Child Labor Factory: Gav! 1T MAKES THE BLOOD TINGLE—THE VERY ROMANCE OF IT ALL crse, d me so much with thi, how I can sell it Robert Sherwood. Cheerograms It Is All in the Potnt of View . A mother sent her two little girls to play in a beautiful garden. Soon one child ran back crying “Oh! Mother, Mother,” she moaned, “all the roses have thorns.” By and by the other child came dane- . radiant. “Oh! Mother, Mother.” she cried “all the thorns have beautiful roses.” It Depends on How You Look At It “HOW NEM CONGUSSMEN GIT ALL Two men looked out from prison bars. RASTUS? One saw mud—the other saw stars. “L SPECTS DEY SENDS "RM TO ONE NEM WHITE-WASH "AT OIL OFFEN DEIR CLOES, LAUNDRIES.’ my ' comicbooks.com