Life, 1915-04-01 · page 70 of 72
Life — April 1, 1915 — page 70: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page promotes an article by war correspondent **Perceval Gibbon** about his firsthand experiences in the **Russian trenches during World War I** (likely the Eastern Front in Poland). The accompanying illustration depicts soldiers in combat—figures reacting to shrapnel explosions, with some falling or scattering in panic. **The satire/purpose:** Life magazine frames Gibbon's account as an antidote to sanitized war reporting. The text emphasizes that his vivid, unglamorous eyewitness testimony—describing "frightful, ugly, horrifying suffering"—will make readers truly *understand* war's reality rather than accept official narratives. The juxtaposition with a genteel soap advertisement (left side) underscores the contrast: while commerce peddles comfort and refinement, Gibbon offers brutal truth about actual combat conditions. **Historical context:** This reflects 1915 American journalism beginning to question romantic war narratives as European trench warfare revealed its horrific scale.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
598 a Os Pale = Few Soldiex{ al Gaia Senda 2¢ Stamp A walked perhaps fifty yards in front of us. Then 4 é | of a sudden came the shrapnel, the noise of a \f ; bundle of sticks broken across a giant’s knee, the fe ora Sample Cake sudden little balloon of bomb smoke overhead. and you, . will be delighted with the chs ing delic ind dateede pee te ere eaten at te The group of soldiers burst asunder with queer, : of how perfect a toilet soap can be | ¥ HTD Ghywoorins Soap Preferred today, as for generations, by women of perception and refinement. 15 cents per cake at your dry goods dealer or druggist. + merely the cost of pai np we d postage send 2¢ stamp I id White Rose Glycerine Soap. A new, delightful form of this refreshing soap— 1, economical, efficient. A lururious shampoo. MULHENS & KROPFF, Dept.L, 25 W. 45th St., New York of his countrymen is nothing but the truth which their enemies are trying to conceal? Lastly, dear Lire, have you stopped to consider whether it be not true that such opprobrium as attaches to the spy and results in his being shot (for- merly hanged) dates from the days when the fighting barons wore iron pots upon wooden heads and had to seek the brains of spies in other ranks than their own? tiny cries, mere startled squeaks. Two fell. One rose cursing; he had merely tripped over his own feet in trying to run; the other ......... Perceval Gibbon is telling what he himself saw. He has been living out there in the trenches. Day after day, night after night, unceasing] cannons belch forth. The death-laden halls scream and break. The wounded, the dying, the dead, mark their paths. The picture is seared into his very soul. The bullets that passed him by have stricken down comrades at his side. He has lived this war. The frightful, ugly, horrifying suffering of it all is very real to him. It is his message to make it real to us. To my way of thinking, it would not atl be unworthy of the supposedly enlightened | e ae and democratic twentieth century to trea’ be other hostile unit and condemn him, 4 shes captured, ie prison, vol te death, ) SIRE TOT aie takes you right into the trenches of the Russian Ke Sew York, Army in Poland. He brings home to you a : — tee vivid sense of this war's actualities. He makes y you feel, and think, and realize. | Mr. Gibbon’s is not a pretty story—for war is not pretty—but if you want a strong, man's-size ee picture of the awfulness of this war, if you want at your eyes to see what his eyes saw in the Russian \ | trenches, you should read his article. : | F ee C +: | You will find it in the April e THE DESCENT OF MAN | On Sale To-day PETIR J. CAREY, PRINTER comichooks com}