Life, 1926-08-05 · page 28 of 41
Life — August 5, 1926 — page 28: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a fundraising appeal, not a satirical cartoon. Life magazine is soliciting donations for its "Fresh Air Fund," which sent poor urban children from tenement slums to country camps for summer relief. The rhetoric uses gentle irony: it claims a "philanthropic heart" is a luxury anyone can afford (contradicting the assumption that charity requires wealth). The appeal emphasizes emotional appeal—describing children suffering in city heat—while positioning giving as accessible to ordinary readers. The images show the camps' facilities: children hiking in nature and an outdoor swimming pool at Branchville. The cost was $20 per child for eighteen days. The text frames this as addressing "Heartbreak Streets" and urban poverty, reflecting Progressive Era concerns about industrial city conditions and child welfare. The phrase "if that be socialism, make the most of it" suggests contemporary debates about charity versus systemic reform, though it's presented lightheartedly rather than critically.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Life We Hold Our Hat Out A Plea for LIFE’S Fresh Air Fund PHILANTHROPIC A heart is a luxury easily bought and paid for. You want one—you always have wanted onc—but you have imagined that you had to be a millionaire before you could afford it. You're wrong! Absolutely! Don’t wait until your shi comes in, or until that stock gocs up, or until the cash reg- ister checks right before you invest in this most human and unselfish of all the luxuries—a philanthropic heart. You have a right to one as well as the next fellow! If that be socialism, make the most of it! But— Buy one to-day! Buy one this morning, while the air is all sparkling and crystalline and you feel that life is beginning afresh once more, and you know that your heart must be made to match the day and the new hopes! Buy one this afternoon, when the heat, simmering in the brown bowl of the fields and under drooping trees, makes you thank God for your own well-conditioned life, and you are quickened with pity for the poor little chil- dren who pant and weep and suffer through a long summer in the terrible slums of a great city! Buy one this evening, when undcr the yellow stars of midsummer you have an attack of that “tender feeling” which seizes us all at times and which we seldom admit to any but ourselves. Buy a philanthropic heart! Buy it by sending some needy child of our Heartbreak Streets to the country. Out of the tenements, into the fields!) And you can do this. THINK OF PLAYING BALL WITHOUT A COP In sigut! THE DUST OF THE CITY IS QUICKLY SHAKEN OFF WHEN HIKERS HIT THE LONG BROWN JERSEY TRAILS. Lire’s Camps for Needy Children—one for boys at Pottersville, N. J., and one for girls at Branchville, Conn.—need your help. The Camps, maintained by Lire’s Fresh Air Fund, are waiting with open arms for the children that your philanthropic heart may send. Don’t turn away from our need—their need—your opportunity ! Twenty dollars ($20) pays, approximately, for one child at either Camp for eighteen gorgeous days. More than that will be true philanthropy by which more than (Continued on page 28) SOMETHING NEW AT BRANCHVILLE 18 THE OUTDOOR SWIMMING POOL FOR GIRLS. comicbooks.com