Life, 1893-01-12 · page 13 of 16
Life — January 12, 1893 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon (Wagner):** A couple listens to music. The woman complains that Wagner's music sounds discordant—like "love has stepped on a tack"—mocking the romantic ideal that "music is love in search of a word." This satirizes both Wagner's experimental compositions and the pretentious aestheticism of his admirers. **"A Legal Excuse":** A physician avoids the WWI draft by claiming there's "too much of a draft here for me"—a pun on military conscription. When challenged to "face the music," he responds with Latin legal phrases (*facit per alium* vs. *facit per se*), meaning he'd rather have someone else face the consequences than do so himself. The joke ridicules both the doctor's cowardice and his attempt to use legal jargon to justify draft-dodging. **"Poker Terms":** A small cartoon (caption: "Not Coming In") depicts someone refusing to participate—likely another draft-avoidance reference. The page broadly satirizes wartime shirking and intellectual pretension.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WAGNER. He: LANIER SAYS ‘* MUSIC IS LOVE IN SEARCH OF A WORD.” She: THEN I SHOULD THINK JUST NOW THAT LOVE HAS STEPPED ON A TACK. A LEGAL EXCUSE. POKER TERMS. HEN the National Government first had resort to the draft to obtain recruits for the army during the war, a certain well-known physician, being of the opinion that he was better fitted to heal wounds than to receive them, deter- mined upon a visit to the country until such time as Uncle Sam should have filled his depleted ranks. One day he met a friend who had heard of his proposed departure. “ Going away, doctor? Why, what for ?” his friend asked. “Well,” laughed the doctor, “ there is too much of a draft here for me.” “ O, for shame!” exclaimed the friend. You should face c, you know. You ought to face “Yes,” replied the canny doctor, who knew his Blackstone as well as his “ Materia Medica,” “ but I'd sooner ‘faci? per alium’ than ‘facit per se!" comicbooks.com