Life, 1914-12-24 · page 11 of 40
Life — December 24, 1914 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct satirical pieces from Life magazine: **"The Mascot"** (top photograph): Shows a dog sitting among scattered military equipment and what appear to be fallen soldiers. The caption and context suggest this illustrates the mascot concept—animals accompanying military units—though the specific reference is unclear without additional context. **"Our Personal Column"** (middle text): A gossip column mocking local misbehavior, including vandalism by a banker's son and inappropriate conduct by the mayor. It satirizes both wealthy individuals' children escaping consequences and hypocrisy among community leaders. **"Just a Word at Parting"** (bottom cartoon): A man in a coat addresses a departing train, with text about wishing someone "do something useful" they didn't previously approve of—likely satirizing parental hypocrisy or social contradiction regarding proper behavior and ambition.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE MASCOT Our Personal Column (Uf War Were Individual and Local.) OHN ROBINSON'S eldest son, Jack, broke into the church last Thursday and smashed the cut-glass win- dows and ripped the gold off the altar. His father has presented him with a silver cup in honor of his bravery. Our popular Mayor beat his next-door neighbor's wife into insensibility with a club yesterday, because she remon- strated with him about his chickens getting into her garden. The affair was personally conducted in the presence of 2 large crowd. This adds greatly to His Honor's prestige. In the Sunday-school last week the following prayer was given out, as being appropriate for all children to recite nightly at their mother’s knee: “Oh, God, teach me to hate, revile and spy upon my neighbor, To scratch and bite and destroy wherever I can, and not to let anyone else have any other God but Thee. Amen.” Johnnie Smith, son of our leading banker, cut off his sister’s hands with an axe yesterday. He gave as an excuse that when she grew up she might do something useful of which he didn’t approve. : AYTON: Are all his children: bright? Parker: No; one’s level-headed. JUST A WORD AT PARTING Tecan 4 o