Life, 1926-09-30 · page 31 of 36
Life — September 30, 1926 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Left Column: Book Review** Arthur Guiterman's rhymed review of Will Durant's "The Story of Philosophy" (Simon & Schuster) humorously surveys major philosophers—Plato, Socrates, Kant, Nietzsche, and others—mocking their abstract theorizing as ultimately futile. The reviewer admits philosophy leaves fundamental questions unanswered ("The vast unknown remains unknown") yet confesses to doing amateur philosophizing anyway. The satire targets both pretentious philosophical systems and human intellectual vanity. **Right Column: Advertisement** A Hudson's Bay Company tobacco advertisement presents a romanticized narrative: sportsmen discover superior tobacco in Canada's North Woods, experience its quality campfire-side, then bring it home. The copy emphasizes the tobacco captures the "mellow" essence of wilderness and nature itself, now conveniently available locally. **Bottom: Golf Humor** A brief joke plays on class assumptions: a club member offers a caddy a ride, but the caddy declines, preferring to wait for a "closed car"—implying he won't ride exposed with his social inferior.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
29 Rhymed Reviews The Story of Philosophy By Will Durant. Simon & Schuster, M AN lifts his head from ot the dust, Above the noisy world’s con- fusions, And speculates, because he must, Though never reaching sure con- clusions. The mind, the soul, the cosmie plan; Is mundane life a curse or bless- ing? And what is God? and why is Man? Are themes that hold the wise men guessing. Democritus and Socrates, Kant, Hegel, Bergson, Aristotle Keep splitting hairs and shoveling fleas And grabbing “concepts” by the throttle. Their dusty volumes throng the shelf; Intense are some, and some in- tenser. T like the carthier ones myself— Voltaire and Bacon, James and Spencer. Old Plato really isn’t bad; Spinoza soothes a certain craving, But Schopenhauer is partly mad, And Friedrich Nietzsche fairly raving. Well, here are “systems” deftly wrought, , The spider-webs of lofty sages, And what they thought, or said they thought, In less than twice three hundred pages. And when their bubbles all are blown, And after all their talk and study, The vast unknown remains unknown. Their muddy water still is muddy. But I'm a guesser, too; indeed The things I guess are most sur- prising; So when Philosophy’s my need, I do my own philosophizing. Arthur Guiterman. H.R. H. GOLF CLUB MEMBER (en route to club): Want a lift, caddy? _ Cavvy (looking at the sky): H’m, it looks like rain. I think I will wait for a closed car. They took the North Woods home with them —imprisoned in this mellow pipe tobacco HERE’S one time a smoke should taste best — after the camp-fire’s fallen asleep in its soft red bed of embers, after a day in the deep North Woods of Canada, up near Hudson’s Bay. Sportsmen found in their travels up there a tobacco as mellow and fragrant and aromatic as the air of the forest itself. A tobacco that made instant friends of pipe and tongue, and banished all previous conceptions of what fine pipe tobaccos should be. And then—the unexpected. Going back to civiliza- tion, they left behind the joy of a muskie’s tug on the line and the clean smell of the pine—but not the joy of the pipe smoke. Those mellow moments came along. Hudson’s Bay tobacco tasted even as good in the wood- panelled living room as in the woods-pan- elled camp-site. They took the North Woods home with them, It used to be necessary to send thousands of miles for Hudson’s Bay. Now it’s as near to you as your best tobacconist. Ask him for the scarlet pack- age—as red as the coat of a Royal Mounted man. Pudsons Bay Company, sncoronareo 2-7 nay 1070 HUDSONS BAY ©Jobawto Cut Plag—sweet and mild Imperial Mixture—rich and mellow Fort Garry—full-flavored and cool comicbooks.com