Life, 1914-09-03 · page 10 of 48
Life — September 3, 1914 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate satirical pieces from Life magazine during World War I: **"Talking Commonplaces"** mocks people who talk constantly but think little—they fill time with trivial chatter rather than substantive conversation. **"No Time to Waste"** presents a dialogue between two characters debating whether war casualties justify canceling social engagements, illustrating the disconnect between home-front society concerns and wartime realities. **"War Losses"** reports that Mr. Bryan (likely William Jennings Bryan) lost $250 canceling an August lecture in Connecticut due to "the situation in Europe"—satirizing how even public figures' schedules were disrupted by the war. **"Mars is dead. Long live Mars!"** serves as a closing comment on summer's end and returning to normalcy. The central illustration depicts a long procession of society figures labeled "Society," suggesting the leisured classes marching together, possibly critiquing their detachment from wartime concerns.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
No Time to Waste IRST EGRET: If this keeps up we may be able to raise a few more families. I wonder what's the matter with those human beings? We haven't been shot at or any of us killed now for some weeks. Seconp Ecrer: Don’t you know? Why, they are busy now shooting and kill- ing each other. “LaleP Es Talking Commonplaces B® it remembered by all those whose tongues are hinged like a pantry door that in order to avoid talking commonplaces one must avoid talking. People who remain silent do not, obviously, talk commonplaces. People who talk little talk some commonplaces. People who talk more talk many commonplaces. But, in favor of those who talk little, it may be said that a smaller proportion of their talk is commonplace and platitudinous than of the talk of those who talk most. The amount of commonplace per unit in the talk of any given person varies inversely as the square of the time devoted to thought between talks. It is plain, therefore, that people who talk all the time and who thus have no time to think, talk commonplaces, and commonplaces only. War Losses R. BRYAN is out two hun- dred and fifty dol- lars because obliged to cancel a lecture engagement for August 2d at Stamford, Connecticut, “because of the situation in Europe”. Our sympathies are with Bro, Bryan in this disappointment and others of the same sort. It was mean to start so big a disturbance right in the middle of the Chautauqua season. SUMMER IS OVER M’ss is dead. Long live Mars! BACK TO THE JOB