Life, 1914-01-22 · page 14 of 40
Life — January 22, 1914 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two pieces of WWI-era content: **Top section:** Practical advice for wounded soldiers, describing battlefield medical procedures—bullet removal, field ambulance transport, and hospital treatment. The cartoon caption "Hurry up, Dick, and get in the picture!" shows soldiers rushing toward a photographer, likely satirizing soldiers' eagerness to document their war experience. **Main article: "A New Joy for the Soldier"** discusses improved medical care during wartime. It references a French doctor's report in *Scientific American* about better battlefield treatment, contrasting this with earlier periods when wounded soldiers received minimal care. The article emphasizes three improvements: guaranteed proper treatment, a bed, and free care. **Illustration:** Captioned "The Struggle for the Limelight," shows soldiers competing for a photographer's attention—satirizing soldiers' desire for publicity and documentation during combat. The overall tone is darkly humorous about warfare's realities.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A New Joy for the Soldier ACCORDING to a report pub- lished by a French Doctor Helme in the Scientific American, the business of getting wounded in battle has now reached the most satisfactory basis upon which it has ever been. Up to a comparatively recent period, when you were wounded in battle there was no guarantee that you would get proper treatment; now you can be almost certain of three square meals a day and a good bed free of charge. At one time, after you had been shot or bayonetted, there was ap- parently nothing you could do to at- tract the attention of any nation that happened to be passing. Now all is changed. After having recetved the glorious call for war, previously arranged by the big business. interests of your father or motherland, as the case may be, you apply for a leading position in the front ranks, and, cordially shaking hands with your wife and little ones, you leap into your limousine and are rapidly whirled to the scene of action, where you get your number and salute the leading general, who now takes his place in a zone of safety about four miles in the rear, and the battle begins. The chances are about two to one that you will be shot, owing to the complete manner in which the guns of the enemy are made to operate. “LIFE: The moment you notice a bullet en- tering your person, do not be alarmed. Just take from your pocket a small package, previously presented to you by the government, and carefully read- ing the directions on the outside, place the contents over the entrance to your wound. You then know that if you are still alive this wound will be healed in about forty cases out of a hundred. The next thing in order is to make tracks for the nearest “nest of assist- ance”, This consists of a group of doctors, who diagram your body, and by the group operating system remove all bullets and bayonets that may he found inside of you, and place you in a field ambulance, which takes you to the nearest hospital. Here you are pro- vided with trained nurses, and in case you are permanently disabled, you re- ceive a pension consisting of about one-fourth of what you would be able to earn if you hadn't accepted the in- vitation. The business of going into war has, therefore, been lifted up from the vul- yar past into the joyful atmosphere of science, Being riddled or stabbed on the battlefield is an orderly and decent process, along the lines of great- est efficiency. Perhaps the most com- forting reflection about it all is that your wife and little ones are back home in the happy consciousness that you couldn't be better killed even if they had to do it themselv THE STRUGGLE FOR THE LIMELIGHT comicbooks.com