Life, 1914-11-19 · page 13 of 44
Life — November 19, 1914 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece depicts a father dismissing his son Harold's war concerns. The illustration shows a figure climbing a rope toward what appears to be a noose—a visual metaphor for national danger. Harold reports alarming rumors: Japan, China, Germany, England, and Russia supposedly plan simultaneous attacks with airships, guns, bombs, and submarines. He urges his father to support military preparedness and training schools. The father, however, dismisses these fears as baseless panic, confidently asserting America's natural geographic protection makes war impossible. He explicitly tells Harold not to join the army. The satire critiques both blind complacency about genuine threats and the spread of alarming (possibly exaggerated) war rumors. The rope imagery suggests the nation faces real peril despite willful denial.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
a PRAY: A Nation’s Peril URING dinner Harold labored under an almost visible state of excitement. It was not, however, until the evening meal was concluded, and bis mother had gone to tell the cook what they would like to have for break- fast, provided the cook felt in humor for cooking it, that Harold felt secure, “Oh, say, papa,” he burst out, “it’s coming! The barber says so, and the man at the grocery says he knows we can’t get out of it. I wish you would tell me how soon and all about it.” - Harold's father looked almost furtively at his watch, as he lighted his cigar. “T have an important engagement this evening with your mother, my boy,” he replied solemnly, “but I regard it as a sacred duty on the part of an American father to sacrifice a part of his valuable time in keeping his children cor- rectly informed on the great questions of the day, and I cannot tell you how gratified I am to see you take so much interest. Now make your statements short and direct— just as you always see me do—for your mother will be ready soon. What's coming? Harold’s eyes gleamed with youthful patriotism. “Why, father!” he exclaimed, “we just can't help going to war. The barber says we're going to be attacked by Japan and China and Germany and England and Russia all at once—and they are all coming overnight with airships and big guns and bombs and submarines and blow up everything. He says Congressman Mann and Can- gressman Gardner and Colonel Roosevelt and President Eliot and everybody else in the whole country except Mr. Bryan are just worried sick because we are not ready. We haven't any men, and the barber says they are the back- bone of every nation; and even now you can see the dark and bloodthirsty forms of the enemy stealing over yon horizon—say, papa, don’t you think I'd better join the army?” Harold's father smiled indulgently, albeit his manner was a trifle nervous, as he once more consulted his watch and glanced in the direction of the hall stairs, “My dear, innocent boy,” he replied, “you mustn't be- lieve in all the weird tales you hear. ,Of course the future, as that eminent public se-vant and far-seeing statesman, William Howard Taft, so wonderfully says, ‘no man can determine’, But I assure you, my son, nothing can hap- pen to a great nation like ours, with its marvelous re- sources, protected on all sides by nature's barriers. Don't be afraid. There is not the slightest danger.” “But the barber says the government ought to start a great military. training-school for boys, where they could go for six months or a year, and that would give us very soon a big reserve army; and he says that our boys are suffering from lack of discipline, and he says the life blood of the nation is being oozed away because young men are allowed to spend their time recklessly driving The One with the Rope: Tue automobiles over innocent women and children, and sap- UP, TOO, HARRY, 1 W NY ping their young life blood away at tango teas, when comicbooks.com