Life, 1929-01-11 · page 33 of 36
Life — January 11, 1929 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page mixes product advertising with a cartoon commentary on travel writing. The main cartoon depicts a street scene where someone asks "I wonder if they mean me?"—likely commenting on travel writers who claim to capture authentic foreign experiences while potentially exaggerating or misrepresenting what they observe. The editorial text above critiques travel writer Bercovici, praising his ability to convey *feeling* and atmosphere over factual accuracy. It suggests travel literature prioritizes artistic interpretation ("what it *feels* like to be in Paris") rather than practical information (distances, tipping amounts). The implicit satire questions whether such subjective accounts are reliable representations or romanticized distortions. The surrounding advertisements—for Simmons watch chains and White Star Line Mediterranean cruises—suggest Life's audience: middle-class Americans with disposable income for travel and luxury goods, who might read travel literature before booking passage. The overall tone is gentle mockery of both travel writers' pretensions and tourists' appetite for curated, emotionally enhanced experiences.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Life YOUR interpreter of foreign lands. He has the easy-going tolerance and innate apprecia- tion so necessary to the born traveler. He NE CHAIN has a greedy mind, which extracts all 8) the warmth, the color, and the feeling. It is this concentration of the best which HAS leads to the belief that he exaggerates. But, after all, fiction is only an artistic rearrangement of the facts, and Bercovici TWO JOBS ii fpe meh ie artist to let facts walk If you want to know how far it is from the Place Vendome to the Gare du Nord, and how much to tip the driver, this is not the place to find out. But if you want to know what it feels like to be in Paris, for instance, in the early dawn, when the market carts are rumbling into the Halle, read “Nights Abroad.” Recommended The, Case of Sergeant Grische, by Arnold Zweig, Viking ukon Jake, by Edwald B. Paramore, Ite Coward Alcona ne.” Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island. by’ Hi. ‘GC. 46-DAY CRUISES Freie, Deatisdey, Deven. . 4 agues Under the Sea, . ‘ Robert Benchley, Holt. "Way fo 12,000 Miles—11 Countries by Albert Richard Wetjen, Century. .. Killer, by Elmer Davis, Day... :The a of including Thinking, by Ernest Dimnet, Simon & Schuster complete shore program MEDITERRANEAN the Holy Land and Egypt HERE in the world can you match this travel value? You need a win- ter vacation—and the Mediterranean is the place to go. Make new friends in countries familiar to you from school- YOUR watch-chain has two jobs Dp SS to do, and do well. First, to oF, . days, Red-cheeked flower girls in Ma- wear for years—no matter how : ; ; deira— croupiers of Monte Carlo—shop- often you handle it. And in S Are | keepers clothed in rainbow colors, in . t ™ . , rary * the Arab quarters of Algiers—donkey addition to its sturdiness, your boys eager to escort you to the Pyramids chain should add an up-to-the- RAN .\< —peasant women of Nazareth dressed minute touch to your appear- z a exactly as they were in Bible times— ance. It must be good-look- HS SSS a fascinating panorama awaits you. ing, and stay that way. A oN : TOURIST Third Cabin accommodations Simmons Chain will do both - ms. . - on famous cruising liners can be en- . ; gaged for $395, or less than $9 per day oe jobs as ed petal 3S : for the Cruise, The college crowd i, Toucan put the chain on— & - Bary travels TOURIST Third Cabin now- and forget it. { | adays, as well as teachers, clergymen, The chain illustrated above ; business and professional men and wo- on | men, and all who wish to see the most is No. 30033, a green gold- | } er) A . and get the best on the fewest number filled Waldemar at $9. Like rey of travel dollars, The itinerary includes all Simmons Chains, it has ; “ % Madeira, Gibraltar, Algiers, Monte been made in our own factory, Phas : Carlo, Naples, Athens, Constantinople, under our own patents. There } er Jernselenn, Nesereth, Sicily and tocrown , Simmons Chains in ; e trip—a five-day stay in Egypt. Fre- are other vim p quent stopovers and optional return to all the st: “urd styles — at e . America by a north European port. prices rang, g from $4 to $15. : : é S. S. Laurentic, Jan. 19 and Mar. 9 Ask your jeweler to show you : ‘ : S.S. Adriatic, Feb. 28 his assortment. R. F. Simmons r ’ Co., Attleboro, Mass. f ; [ WHITE STAR LINE INTERNATIONAL MERCANTILE MARINE COMPANY For complete information address No. 1 CHAINS Voice in THR Winvow: “I wonder if they mean me?” comicbooks.com