Life, 1915-09-02 · page 22 of 48
Life — September 2, 1915 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page celebrates the **Plattsburg Training Camp**, a real 1915-1916 military preparedness program where affluent American civilians volunteered for summer military instruction. The first article praises these 1,300 well-to-do businessmen and professionals who sacrificed their vacation month for national defense—framing it as patriotic obligation rather than recreation. The sketch satirizes a fishing mishap: a man warns his companion that going to the front would cost him "both" (likely his catch and something else), playing on war's unpredictability. "Glory Be for the Giants!" uses the New York Giants baseball team's mid-season improvement as metaphor for New York's general sluggishness in civic progress compared to other cities. "Nobody Is Rich" is a witty social satire: a literary Socialist explains why rich-mocking writing is "safe"—because each income bracket believes criticism targets *someone richer*, creating a cascade where no one feels personally attacked. The final cartoon shows a man asking a boy's name, with "Tommy" misconstrued as "Tommy rot" (British slang: nonsense).
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Good for the Plattsburgers ! HE Plattsburg summer school in soldiering “THERE'S LUCK For you! means a good deal. are there learning what can be learned in a single Thirteen hundred men month about the business of being a soldier. They are not out for a lark. They are there strictly for business, or, as it may justly be put, from a sense of national obligation. Most of the thirteen hun- dred are well-to-do men, workers in the professions or in business, for whom August ordinarily is the vacation month. They give to the camp and hard work the weeks that they most count on for recrea- tion and amusement. IF I'b COT TO THE FRONT I WOULD PROBABLY HAVE LOST THEM BOTH” Glory Be for the Giants! noble work that the New York H T baseball team is doing surely ought not to be overlooked amid the stress of world events. The Giants began the season at the bottom of the list, and at this writ- ing have worked their way up nearly to the middle. Such an achievement as this ought to compel respect. New York is behind every other city except in the magnitude of its debt. Improvements in almost every direc- tion are almost sure to appear every- where else before they are adopted by New York, which is not a place where original municipal ideas are manufactured. To represent New York faithfully the Giants ought to remain at the bottom of the list. That they have gone up a few pegs shows that they have the power to rise above their environment. Nobody Is Rich Is it safe to write such caustic things about the rich?” inquired the man who thought he thought. “Quite safe,” replied the literary- Socialist-for-revenue-only, “for no- body takes them to himself. The day-laborer thinks I am shooting at the fifteen-hundred-dollar-a-year_ man, the fifteen-hundred-dollar man thinks I’m shooting at the five-thousand-dollar man, the five-thousand-dollar man thinks I’m pouring hot shot into the fifty-thousand-dollar man, the fifty- thousand-dollar_ man claps his hands because he thinks I am_ scarring a millionaire with every arrow, the millionaire never imagines I could be aiming at him while there are so many multimillionaires in the world, and the multimillionaires are all too eagerly striving to earn more money to read anything I write.” That they pay for their own equipment and maintenance is a smaller matter, for neither costs much, but to give the time is token of strong mo- tives at work. The instruction of the thirteen hun- dred will be valuable to the country as far as it goes. Still more valuable is their example. They show the right spirit, and its force will not end with the closing of the camp. Sequel . OW that the men have gone—” It had been one of the most successful dinner parties of the season. But all good things pass, and the mo- ment had come when it was time for the party to break up. There had been a general uprising, and the hostess turned as by common consent to the gifted woman on her right. Then she added: “Let us have that story.” “TOMMY WHAT?” “TOMMY ROT.” comicbooks.com