Life, 1914-11-05 · page 15 of 48
Life — November 5, 1914 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate satirical pieces: **Top cartoon**: A domestic scene where a mother threatens her son Freddie with social consequences (losing his cousin's company) if he misbehaves—a commentary on how social pressure enforces childhood behavior. **"Efficiency's New Triumph"**: Bitter wartime satire. The piece mocks European governments' casualty miscalculations in World War I, noting they predicted 17.5% casualties but actual losses reached 35%. The dark joke: modern "efficiency"—improved transportation, machine guns, artillery—kills soldiers twice as fast as expected. The conclusion ("man continues to outdo himself even to his own undoing") sardonically suggests technological progress paradoxically enables human destruction. **Bottom cartoon**: A blackmail negotiation where a boy ("Bobbie") witnesses romantic contact and attempts extortion. Castleton refuses to pay and cuts the bribe from a quarter to a dime. The caption's ironic economic commentary suggests eliminating intermediaries—here, the blackmailer—allows direct "transaction" between willing parties "without charge." All three pieces cynically observe modern life's absurdities.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Mother: Now, PLAY WITH YOU AGAIN, Freddie: 18 THAT A PROMISE? Efficiency's New Triumph TH great efficiency of modern machines is illustrated by the error of European governments in calculating war casualties. They fig- ured on seventeen and one-half per cent. of casualties (one hundred and seventy-five thousand in every million men), and, to be on the safe side. provided for twenty per cent. So far, thanks to the improvement in trans- portation, guns and all the apparatus of warfare, the casualties have reached thirty-five per cent., and hospital sup- plies and all means of caring for the wounded have run short. Motors enable generals to get their men into action faster than ever before, and the new machine guns and other artillery kill them at a rate that makes old- time warfare seem playful. So man continues to outdo himself even to his own undoing, OBBIE: I saw you kissing sister again last night. Castteton: Well, I’m not going to pay you a quarter this time. Ten cents is enough. Bosse: That's the tendency in these days, to cut out the middleman and let the goods go straight from the producer to the consumer without charge. FREDDIE, IF YOU'RE DISAGREEABLE TO COUSIN ETHEL, SHE WON'T COME AND ANOTHER PASTIME WE MUST FOREGO comicbooks.com