Life — October 6, 1898 — page 5: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Welcome Back" This satirical cartoon from Life magazine depicts a reunion between a returning soldier and a woman. The title "Welcome Back" and dialogue below—"Are you one of our seventy-first heroes?" / "No, I ain't no hero. I'm a regular."—suggest this addresses post-WWI homecoming attitudes. The cartoon likely satirizes the public's tendency to lionize returning soldiers as heroes, while the soldier himself modestly disclaims such status, identifying as merely "regular." The woman's fashionable dress and the soldier's worn uniform emphasize their different experiences during wartime. The satire appears to critique either excessive hero-worship of veterans or the disconnect between civilian expectations and soldiers' own self-perception regarding their service. The copyright date (1898, per OCR) seems inconsistent with WWI references, suggesting possible dating error.