Life, 1912-05-23 · page 4 of 44
Life — May 23, 1912 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page celebrates the Army and Navy with two cartoon vignettes. The left figure, a sailor saying "Shiver my timbers," appears to be a traditional nautical character. The right figure, an Army officer saying "I need it," represents military personnel. The text announces an upcoming special tribute issue to the armed forces, framed as a patriotic gesture rather than promotional content. The "Recipe for Happiness" is humorous filler—instructions for cutting out and mailing a coupon to Life magazine, presented as an absurd but binding commitment. The overall tone is lighthearted patriotism mixed with self-promotion. The magazine positions itself as supporting troops while encouraging subscriptions through a combination of sentiment and satire typical of Life's editorial approach.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Army and Navy Number of “Shiver my timbers.” “Tneed it.” Which comes next week, is just a little tribute of our own to the Army and Navy, but we don't ask anybody to read it. For some time we have wanted to fire off a textual and pictorial salute to our Army and Navy—just to let the boys know that we love them all! TRIAL OFFER Enclosed find One * , Dollar (Can Recipe for Happiness anon : we Take an ordinary pair of shears, a pen, some ink and / Foreign $1.26). a dollar bill. With the shears cut out the at- / Send Lire for tached coupon, fill in your name and three months to address with the penand ink, insert dol- / lar in envelope, address envelope to LIFE, borrow a postage stamp from a friend, stick it on, mail it, and wait about a week— and you won't know yourself, Obey that impulse. Open only to new subscribers; no subscription renewed at this rate. Trial subscriptions should be sent direct; not through an agent or dealer. LIFE, 17 West 31, New York ONE YEAR $5.00, (CANADIAN $5.52, FOREIGN $6.04.) comicbooks.com