Life, 1925-04-23 · page 31 of 37
Life — April 23, 1925 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines reader contest responses with advertising. The main content is letters from *Life's* Question Contest, where readers critique American cities. The satirical letters mock urban problems: one attacks Chicago for crime, poverty, dangerous drivers, and corruption—claiming its only virtue is roads *leaving* the city. Another dismissively describes Los Angeles as superficial and materialistic ("void like the face of a movie actress"), obsessed with size and statistics while lacking genuine substance. A third letter sarcastically praises the Texas town of Purdon for having *no* murders or vitality—suggesting stagnation is worse than vice. These responses reflect early 20th-century anxiety about rapid urbanization, automobile culture, and what was seen as the moral and spiritual emptiness of American cities, particularly booming centers like Los Angeles and Chicago. The Santa Fe Railway advertisement on the right offers escape via train excursions to natural destinations—ironically positioned alongside critiques of urban life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE Lire’s Question Contest (Continued from page 7) London, wants you to join her mad trafic jam at ssth Street and Western Avenue. Bargain death certificates Chicago, home of lousy wealth and lousy poverty, offers you the dirtiest crimes in the world. Tax free! Chicago, land of Sodom, whose reck- jess automobile drivers knock you down and jeer at you, extends the happy hand of hacked hospitality. chicago, haven of harpies and high- hinders, begs you to settle there—if you have anything against yoursclf. Chicago, modern inferno, kicks you out of her backdoor into her only re- deeming features—the ROADS THAT TAKE YOU AWAY FROM THERE! Chicago, I hate you! W. C. Stouffer, 1018 Henry Street, Roanoke, Virginia. Tue worst city in the United States is Purdon, Texas. You never heard of it?) That's another proof of my con- vention. It lacks the lurid crimes of your cities; it cannot point, as they can, to colorful tales of vice, There has not been a murder in twenty-five years, and the old diversion of horseshoe pitching has slipped into oblivion, But the ingenuity by which it has at- tained this end is still more subtle; it has deified inertia and stagnation. There is no vitality for physical or spiritual chievement, and nothing can be worse than the absence of a potentiality for good. J. A, Dowdle, Brooks Hall, Baylor University. Waco, Texas. Boom! Boom! Boom! Los Angeles; sprawling, ballyhooing, Growing, growing,—one long “awk- ward stage”... We got climate and a cloudless sky,— A pretty blue sky, Pretty and void like the face of a movie actress; We got statistics, real estate and mur- der trials, And oil, And movies and the parents of child movie stars. Boom! Blah!... We got (or Pasadena, anyway) “Little Boy Blue” that England produce We got millionaires that the East pro- duced ; We got hardy pioneers who emigrated to escape frost-bite ; We got big mountains, but they don't make us feel little; We got the truth, but even we have our reticences, Size, size, anything (except Japanese) for size—Well—even Japanese count in the census. Boom! Good Lord deliver us. Kile Crook, 1§ Barnard Street, Hartford, Conn, More Honorable Mentions Wii P. Axtie, San Francisco, Calif.; L. Ratroxp Battey, Je, Phila- delphia, Pa. ; Ezett, Graham, N. C.; woop, Brooklyn, N. Y.; 7. Ctanaters-Fraxcts, Los Angeles, Calif.; R. E. Goswett, Kansas City, Mo.; B. Harsisox, Los _ Angeles, ; M. Hawt, Oakland, Calif; Chars 1 Jouxsox, Uniontown, Pa.; Mrs. A. M. Keys, Toronto, Can.; Ep: wiy G. Kyte, M. D., Indianapolis, Aurero Law New York, Francis T, Lrauy, Brookline, Vinctxia Stvaxt Love, Chicago, Ill.; Dan May, Nashville, Tenn.; Evexett F. McCoy, Indianapolis, Ind. ; Mitticax, Denver, ‘Colo. Puituirs, San Antonio, Puxstey, Whipp i Ottawa, Can. lumbia, Duluth, Minn. pNA MacDo nem, Watervliet Arsenal, N.Y I Oberlin, 0.;'C.'R. Buffalo, N. Y.; W. H. Tuoas Francisco, Calif.; Mary M. Sandusky, O.; W.’ T. Wititrow, Roches: N. Y.3 Lity H. Youmans, Saratoga winning answer to the tenth and last question, “Is Religion on th Wane?” will be published next w The major prize winners will be an- nounced in the FRESH AIR NUM- BER on May 7. Santa Fe System Lines 1223 Railway Exchange, Chicago, Illinois this summer via ty Santa Fe Caloivas? Arizona « New Mexico Rockies and to your National Parks °*- J) &, Please send me Santa Fe picture-folders of trip to comicbooks.com