Life, 1915-09-02 · page 9 of 48
Life — September 2, 1915 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece compares German military aggression to "burbanking"—a horticultural technique where plants are grafted onto different rootstock to produce new varieties. The article argues that just as plants resist being "burbanked" and prefer remaining unchanged, nations dislike German interference. The joke: Germans are attempting to forcibly "graft" their influence onto other nations, producing unwanted hybrid results (novel fruits, spineless helmets, deportments). The two photographs below labeled "The Invader: A Little Matter of Two Generations" show a soldier in a mountain pass (presumably a German soldier invading neutral territory) contrasted with a modern vehicle on a city street, illustrating how invasion methods have evolved across generations. The satire criticizes German expansionism as fundamentally unwanted foreign interference.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Burbanking the Nations HE English are a remarkably strong and valuable plant that seems to need to be Burbanked. The Germans are doing the Burbanking, but as yet indirectly. Burbanking is doubtless good for plants, but it is seldom agreeable, even when done indirectly. Plants prefer to go on being the same as heretofore. No plant ever chose to he Burbanked. That is the basis of the universal unpopularity of the Germans. Since they started out to Burbank all mankind nobody likes them, not even the English, who may profit in the long run from German attentions So may the rest of mankind, including the Germans themsel: For though it may be true that you won't know mankind when the Germans get through with it, it is at least equally true that you won't know the Germans when mankind gets through with them. They also will be properly Burbanked and made to produce novel fruits and spineless helmets and deportments. For Burbanking on the national scale is reciprocal. The giver gets his in the end, and is apt to get it in the neck. WAAN a0 THE INVADER A LITTLE MATTER OF TWO GENERATIONS comicbooks.com -