Life, 1926-01-28 · page 4 of 36
Life — January 28, 1926 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **Mimeograph advertisement**, not a political cartoon. The page features a product image at the top showing a mimeograph machine—a now-obsolete document reproduction device. The advertisement uses Shakespeare as a rhetorical device: it argues that Shakespeare's enduring influence came from *repeated dissemination* of his works. The ad then makes an analogy—just as multiple printings made Shakespeare influential, businesses should use mimeographs to mass-produce and distribute their own "best ideas" widely and efficiently. The satirical angle (typical of Life magazine) appears subtle: the comparison between Shakespeare's timeless genius and business efficiency documents is somewhat absurd and humorous. The ad promises "high speed and low cost" reproduction, targeting American businesses and educational institutions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
MILLIONS OF DARTS If Shakespeare’s plays had been printed only once, the world would have lost much of its richest thought. Shakespeare is a world-force today because his best thinking has been dup- licated millions of times. It would be difficult to estimate the great loss to Business and Edu- cation through far-reaching ideas that have died in single communications, but which could have been made to live by dissemination to thousands. American Business and Education use the Mimeograph as the most efficient means of dupli- cating their best ideas. Thousands of exact repro- ductions of letters, bulletins, forms, designs, etc., it produces hourly—at high speed and low cost. Send today to A.B. Dick Company, Chicago, for booklet “W-1,” showing how it disseminates its speedy darts. MIMEOGRAPH comicbooks.com