Life, 1927-06-02 · page 34 of 46
Life — June 2, 1927 — page 34: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is not satire but rather a earnest charitable appeal. Life magazine is fundraising for its own philanthropic camps—Camp Raritan (boys, New Jersey) and Camp for Girls (Connecticut)—which provided summer respite for impoverished urban children, primarily from New York's Lower East Side tenements. The article uses theatrical metaphor ("Setting the Stage") to frame the camps as a redemptive drama. Children are cast as "actors" needing rescue from squalid slum conditions. The photographs show children swimming and playing—evidence of the camps' restorative work. The appeal is explicitly stated: Life seeks "Angels" (wealthy donors) to contribute $20 per child's summer placement. The rhetoric emphasizes moral obligation—without donors' support, disadvantaged children remain trapped in tragic urban poverty all summer. This reflects Progressive Era philanthropic messaging: charitable organizations positioned themselves as saviors providing nature, health, and happiness to the deserving poor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Life Lire’s Camps for Needy Children THE FLOODTIDE OF JOY AT CAMP RARITAN (POTTERSVILLE, NEW JERSEY) IS REACHED IN THE Ve RY soon a magic curtain will rise. It will rise on the wonderfully human and thrilling drama of ¢ passion, friendliness and betterment that is enacted every year at Lire’s Camps for Needy Children. The Camp for Boys—Camp Rar- itan—is located at Pottersville, New Jersey; and the spacious Camp for Girls is at Branchville, Connecticut. The great scene-shifters of nature have made a setting in each case worthy of this marvelous work. They have arranged wide fields, clear brooks, deep woodlands, long brown roads —all the things calculated to erase the sordid memory of the slums from the sensitive minds of little boys and girls who have not been as fortu- nate as our own children. The orchestra is tuning up —birds and fresh breezes, and the thousand little sounds that speak intimately to chil- dren from the grass and the trees, Fresh paint splashes. Airy camp houses, dormitories, mess halls, play rooms—all must be bright and ready. Sleeping tents are being set up. Two carefully trained stage crews are waiting for the THE OLD SWIMMING HOLE, WASH AWAY THE powN THEMSELVES.” HERE IN SPARKLIN MEMORY OF UNHAPPY Setting the Stage great opening. The stage manager, under whose wise guidance the two Camps have flourished for the past couple of years, stands with his watch in his hand, ready to give the word for the play to begin. The actors—the wistful, weary, neglected children of the tenements —are panting to dash upon the scene and to enact, with the wholehearted- ness of youth, the réles of happy, healthy and befriended little boys AT CAMP RARITAN WE 8AY, OUNCES—THE POUNDS WILL PHYSICAL CONTENTMENT. “TAKE CARE OF TAKE CARE OF THIS YOUNGSTER ACCUMULATED 80 MUCH HEALTH LAST SUMMER THAT HIS WINTER, EVEN IN THE SLUMS, WAS ONE OF HAPPINESS AND SUMMER WATERS THE CHILDREN ND UNCARED-FOR DAYS. and girls — easy And you? What part will you take? Behind every play there exists a mysterious character who puts up the mone: y to provide the entertain- ment. He is called the “Angel.” In this case, the term is singularly ap- propriate. Will you be one of the “Angels” who make Lire’s possible? Without you and your contribu- tions the curtain cannot rise. But, thank God, for the past forty years you have never failed to ring it up. Without you the little ac- tors must languish in the ter- rible Lower East Side of New York, a section of the me- tropolis so disheartening, so tragic that the thought of little children being impris- oned there all summer with- out one glimpse of the coun- try is heartbreaking. Without you the wonderful scene at the Camps is dead— silent—useless, Now, before the pitiless and scorching days of sum- mer arrive, is the time to send in your contributions. Twenty dollars ($20) will send a little boy or a little girl to either of these Camps (Please turn to page 38) parts to play, Camps comicbooks.com