Life, 1915-04-29 · page 18 of 44
Life — April 29, 1915 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct satirical pieces: **"Knees" essay**: A humorous male perspective on women's knees, treating them as objects of utility and aesthetic interest. The piece mocks both masculine obsession and domestic life—knees "hold girls," assist in dressing wives, and famously fail when "requested to carry alcohol" (drunk men). The wit lies in the clinical yet absurd cataloging of knees' social functions. **Art Director cartoon**: An editor rejects an artist's comic work as "too comic for general illustrating" in Life supplements, suggesting it needs to be less humorous. The irony is sharp—the publication itself is satirical, yet commercial departments demand toned-down comedy. **Methodist statement & "To Whom?" poem**: The Methodists criticized President Wilson's neutrality as insufficiently forceful against German atrocities in WWI. The accompanying poem mocks surgeons who perform unnecessary procedures (opening a patient finding "nothing wrong") yet bill handsomely anyway—three hundred dollars being substantial money at the time. The page satirizes contemporary attitudes: masculine consumption, commercial compromise, wartime politics, and medical profiteering.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“PE* Knees (By a Mere Man.) KX bag trousers, hold girls, and at one time were extensively used for praying. Knees are also employed in baseball and football. When used for this purpose they are first covered with hair mattresse: Knees come in pairs; as in poker, four knees usually beat a full house. Every knee, like most well-ordered kitchens, has a pan; no knee, indced, is complete without this necessary do- mestic article. Knees are also used by husbands, who plant them firmly in their wives’ backs while hooking them up, engaging themselves meanwhile in merry songs and airy persiflage. Every knee helps to tether the calf of the leg to the thigh; if it were not for the faithful knee the calf would wander off by itself and get into trouble. Sometimes it does anyway. Knees will go on uncomplainingly for a long time with very heavy burdens, but when requested to carry alcohol they almost immediately begin to fall out with each other. They frequently have to hold up a perfectly useless per- son for many years; before the altar, however, or during an after-dinner speech, they frequently knock each other hard. Sometimes knees are fond of lamp-posts and will cling to one for hours at a time. Knees are ambitious; a pair will begin by holding up one girl, and will end by holding a whole family. HE difference between your own and other people's children is the difference between virtue and vice. art Editor: i's ILLUSTRATING Artist: 1 SUPPOSE THAT MEANS FE DOING COMIC SUPPLEMENTS “NOT NECESSARILY, YOU MIGHT AFRAID YOUR WORK I WILL HAVE To S| MY 1S TOO COMIC FOR GENERAL DESIGN WOMEN'S FASHION GEOGRAPHICAL TURKEY IN EUROPE Methodists Want More Ginger in Neutrality HE Methodists of New York, speaking through their committee on the state of the nation, appeal to the country to support the President in his difficult: dealings with the nations at war. They suggest, however, that they could have stood it to have him remonstrate about the various German atrocities in war. They fear our country has not done its duty in omitting to remonstrate “when women and children were being slain in unfortified villages by reckless bombardment”, when passenger ships have been attacked by submarines, and bombs have been dropped upon defenseless homes. No doubt the Methodists reflect a feeling that is fairly general. It may be we owe the President a great debt for keeping us out of the war; neverthele: if he had remonstrated against treaty break ing and barbarities, he would have had the backing of the nation. The newspapers did remonstrate, and have been powerfully sup- ported in that duty. To Whom? ING a song of doctors Working on a case, Each with saw and chisel And a bit and brace. When the case was opened, Nothing wrong at all— Did that make the doctors Feel a trifle small? No; they played his organs To the merry tune Of three hundred dollars. Surgery’s a boon! Walter G. Doty. END THE REST OF