Life, 1915-02-11 · page 40 of 44
Life — February 11, 1915 — page 40: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines a dramatic WWI narrative with period advertisements. The text excerpt describes a severely wounded French soldier who survives multiple bullet wounds and undergoes facial reconstruction surgery in Paris. The narrative emphasizes French resilience and morale—the soldier even tricks his surgeon by submitting his handsome brother's photograph as a reconstruction guide, reflecting France's ability to "fight with a smile." The page promotes James Hopper's article "Why France is Gay" (using "gay" in its older sense: cheerful/spirited), celebrating French wartime optimism. The cartoon titled "High Finance" (bottom) appears to depict a pig in human clothing, likely satirizing profiteering or financial manipulation during wartime—a common target of WWI-era satire. The Cascade Whisky advertisement uses romantic wartime imagery unrelated to the editorial content.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
256 “Bullets zipped close about him. Finally one went through the flesh of his right shoulder, and half a minute later another through the flesh of his neck. He changed his po- sition, tried to baffle the inexorable sharpshooter, but to no avail. Suddenly his head was ringing like a great bell; then it burbled as if full of water: he fell.” The man’s forehead and eyes were spared but the surgeons gave him up to a priest who shrived him. He refused to die and after suffering intensely finally reached Paris. Five weeks later he was having his face rebuilt to resemble his brother who was handsomer than he. Joyful over the trick he played on the surgeon in giving him his brother’s photograph to follow, he reflects the general state of mind in France. Both at the front and at home France fights with a smile on her lips. In ““Why France is Gay,” James Hopper has expressed the spirit that animates France to-day. It is the kind of a war article you will never forget. It is both beautiful and inspiring. Read it in the February 13th issue of Collier's ‘THE NATIONAL WEEKLY “ISIERSES: MeELLOw as Waste MOONLIGHT CASCADE ‘PURE WHISKY We do not claim to be exclusive in our desire to produce extraordinary whisky +--but somehow results seem to have credited us with that exclusiveness. Original Bottling Has Old Gold Label GEO. A. DICKEL & CO., Distillers NASHVILLE, TENN. = ‘HIGH FINANCE” comichooks!