Life, 1915-01-07 · page 18 of 44
Life — January 7, 1915 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Cartoon ("Life in the German Army"):** The cartoon depicts caricatured German military officers in exaggerated uniforms. This appears to satirize German militarism and the perceived pomposity of the German Army, likely from the pre-WWI or WWI era when Life frequently mocked German military culture. **"Trying to Get Even with a Diner":** This article humorously critiques Pullman railroad dining cars. It describes passengers deliberately overeating cheap food to "get even with the railroad"—framing gluttony as consumer revenge. The satire suggests travelers blame the train's vibrations for their poor digestion and overeating, using it as an excuse for their own excess. **"Jews Shy at the Iron Cross":** This brief piece addresses Jews in the German Army declining the Iron Cross decoration, viewing it as Christian symbolism. The author argues the Iron Cross represents military efficiency, not Christianity, and shouldn't concern Jewish soldiers. This reflects early-20th-century discussions of Jewish military service and assimilation in Germany. **Bottom item:** A brief exchange about marital compatibility with humorous undertones about disagreement and silence in marriage.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
IN THE GERMAN ARMY Trying to Get Even with a Diner SINGER lady who ate a meal on a Pullman car on an August day, and which resulted in a stomach- ache, was recently awarded two thousand dollars damages by a jury. Her doctor said the meal she ate gave her Ptomaine poisoning. The Pullman lawyer said she ate too much, and that it wasn’t a case of quality, but quantity. That was an interesting verdict, because it shows how twelve men, picked up more or less by accident, feel about the meals in a Pullman diner. When, after walking through the train, where you have made many laps, you finally enter the dining-car, you are cordially, if somewhat austerely, greeted by a Chester- fieldian gentleman in brass buttons, who alternately waves and pushes you into a seat, with your spinal column toward the engine. . Then another gentleman completely accoutered in napery that several hours before was as white as the driven snow, before you, with a sweet colored smile, the gastro- nomical panorama which he and the certain other gentle- men who are shut with a red-hot oil-stove in one end of the car, proposes to introduce into your system. Your idea to get as much as you can for the money that a little later you will be forced to pay. The vibration of the train helps you to feel this way. “Faster, faster, faster.” says the train. There is noth- ing to do on a train but eat, drink and smoke, That is the only way you can get even with the railroad. lf you ate as much at home—where things are still— you would lie in bed for twenty-four hours after and curse your folly, with a hot-water bag on the pit of your In a Pullman diner you are joggled some, which helps to settle the food. So no wonder you feel mean when you carry away all the forty-seven varieties of food for a dollar and a quarter that you can get away with, No wonder that ever after you cherish a feeling of deadly enmity toward a dining-car. It has vibrated you into making a fool of yourself. Jews Shy at the Tron Cross ORD comes via Switzerland and London that some of the Jews, who now for the first time are receiv- ing promotion in the German Army, decline to wear the Iron Cross because they regard it as a Christian emblem These brethren have figured wrong in this matter. The fighting. There is that implied in it at which some Chris- tians might squirm, but nothing that need disturb any follower of Joshua and Moses. Docs Howard get along happily with his Yes, some of his opinions coincide with hers and the others he keeps silent about. not Christian. It stands for efficiency in “FRAIL WOMAN, LIKE A TENDER VINE, CLINGS TO THE STURDY OAK” comichooks.com