Life, 1924-10-16 · page 4 of 36
Life — October 16, 1924 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising and editorial content** rather than political satire. The main elements are: 1. **"Letters of a Modern Father"** — A humorous column where a father responds to his son's invitation to a college football game, enclosing money for tickets and advice about taking a girl from "Smith" (likely Smith College). 2. **"Keeping the Telephone Alive"** — A Bell System advertisement celebrating telephone infrastructure maintenance, describing workers who keep lines functional in all weather conditions. 3. **"We Picked That Little Table Up for a Quarter"** — A humorous cost-accounting piece itemizing the expenses of restoring an old farmhouse table (total: $255.25). 4. **"Pinehurst" hotel advertisement** for North Carolina. The page reflects **1920s-30s American life**: college dating culture, technological infrastructure pride, and DIY restoration humor. No significant political satire is present.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Keeping the Telephone Alive Americans have learned to depend on the telephone, in fair weather or in foul, for the usual affairs of the day or for the dire emergency in the dead of night. Its continuous service is taken as a matter of course. The marvel of it is that the millions of thread-like wires are kept alive and ready to vibrate at one’s slightest breath. A few drops of water in a cable, a faulty connection in the wire maze of a switchboard, a violent sleet, rain or wind storm or the mere falling of a branch will often jeopardize the service. Every channel for the speech currents must be kept electrically intact. The task is as endless as housekeeping. Inspection of apparatus, equipment and all parts of the plant is going on all the time. Wire chiefs at “test boards” locate trouble on the wires though miles away. Repairmen, the “trouble hunters,"” are at work constantly wherever they are needed in city streets, country roads or in the seldom-trodden trails of the wilderness. Providing telephone service for this great nation is a huge under- taking. To keep this vast mechanism always electrically alive and dependable is the unending task of tens of thousands of skillful men and women in every state in the Union. AND ASSOCIATED COMPANIES BELL SYSTEM “We Picked That Little Table Up for a Quarter” One snake-foot table from farmhouse porch ++ $00.25 To half-day off from business, gasoline, food, e 50.00 To wear and tear on disposition, self. 25.00 Ditto, wife 50.00 To scraping barn paint off table, four coats 25.00 To refinishing. To time spent explaining table’s value to friends. Total cost of table Letters of a Modern Father My bear Son: Your letter inviting your mother and me up for the big game convinces me that the colleges are not deteriorating It is almost as good as some I wrote to my father thirty years ago. You almost persuade me to come. In recognition of your talent I en- close a check to cover the seats you would have had to buy. Take the gir! from Smith if she can get away—and | never saw one who couldn't—and hav: a good time. It may interest you to know that | have had an encouraging letter from your dean, He says he may let you stay until Christmas. It pleases me to know you are doing so well. Faithfully, Farner. Mr. Dut: What! Another new washerwoman? Why did the other one quit? Mrs, Ditt: She didn’t like the way our washing machine did the washing 100.00 for the best titles to a pic- ture by Charles Dana Gibson—an- nouncement in Lire next week, And NOW It’s CAROLINA HOTEL opens Oct. 27 with full program of sports from the start. Every human comfort —Best of companionship. Reservations should be made at once Address General Office, Pineburst, N.C. Write for illustrated booklet comicbooks.com