Life, 1904-11-03 · page 15 of 40
Life — November 3, 1904 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes **General Corbin's military policy requiring officers to seek War Department permission before marriage** and mandating financial readiness and new uniforms. The main article mocks the regulation's absurdity by noting that uniform inventors profit from frequent style changes, making officers perpetually indebted. Life highlights the hypocrisy by comparing the German army—which enforces similar rules—yet remains notoriously inefficient and indebted, contradicting the efficiency argument. The cartoon **"Birds of a Feather"** (lower left) depicts hanged figures, likely satirizing the policy's severity. The **"In Utah" illustration** shows a spiritualist medium offering a "composite photograph" of a client's future bride—a joke about spiritualism's fraudulence, perhaps suggesting Corbin's marriage rules are equally baseless prediction. The final joke, "Beneath Her," mocks upper-class women who avoid marrying for love, viewing it as undignified—contrasting sharply with military concerns about officer marriages and efficiency.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
May Lieutenants Marry ? E have had, as yet, no com- ment from the President upon the firm opinion of General Corbin, recently communicated, that no officer should enter the marriage relation without first getting permission fromthe War Department. General Corbin wants to make sure that officers are out of debt and able to support a wife, and have enough money ahead to buy a full new outfit of uniforms, before they marry, The first duty of a young officer is to have all the uniforms his job calls for, and to get a new set whenever the inventors of uniforms strike out a new idea. They are alleged to have new ideas with surpassing frequency, and of course it is embarrassing to the in- ventors to have their imaginations restricted by family claims on the young soldiers, for whose adornment they invent clothes. In the German army the importance of style is fully appreciated. No German officer can marry unless his prospective bride's in- come joined with his comes up to the minimum which the German military authorities consider essential to the proper maintenance of a married officer. The German army is abundantly stylish. Its officers are reported to be almost universally in debt, whether married or not. So far as can be judged from the reports that cross the sea, the German army is one of the most appalling nuisances that was ever saddled on a suffering nation. It is asserted that of thirty-two American officers who have been court-martialed since January, 1902, twenty-five were unmarried. What does the President think “BIRDS OF A FEATHER.” IN UTAH Client : CAN YOU REVEAL TO ME THE LIKENESS OF THE WOMAN I AM GOING TO MARRY? Medium : 1 CAN GIVE YOU A COMPOSITE PHOTOGRAPH. about General Corbin's recommenda- tions? His views of the importance of raising families are wellknown, He has lately had as his guest the author of a book which aims to demonstrate that simplicity in living is one of the great goods, and that life may be profitable without being expensive. But he is also interested in military efficiency. Is there a conflict in his mind between his solicitude for the future of the race and his solicitude for the efficiency of thearmy? The people would like to hear from him on this subject, and no doubt they will, though possibly not till after election. Beneath Her. “DID Marjorie marry for love ?"” “Ob, no. She is too well-bred for that."" comicbooks.com