Life, 1915-09-16 · page 32 of 48
Life — September 16, 1915 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon, "The Line of Least Resistance," depicts soldiers advancing in formation with an American flag, apparently taking the easiest path rather than the most strategic one. This satirizes military decision-making during wartime—likely WWI era based on the style—mocking commanders who choose comfort over effective tactics. The bottom illustration, "Future Punishment of the Man Who Kissed and Told," shows a man being punished (likely damnation) for revealing romantic secrets. This is social satire about gossip and betrayal of confidentiality in relationships—a common humor theme about masculine indiscretion. The accompanying text compares economic "money-getters" (wealthy industrialists/robber barons) to extinct prehistoric creatures like mastodons and pterodactyls. The author suggests these financial powerhouses will naturally disappear as society evolves, arguing patience rather than direct action will eliminate them. This reflects Progressive Era criticism of unchecked capitalism and economic consolidation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
beautifiers, providers of objects of taste and aids to civilization, experi- menters, doers of important things that don’t. pay in money. Perhaps the mastodons and the other monsters had uses analogous to these in the pre- historic times. Anyhow, so far as we know, they had their place in the sun and their turn at the bat, and passed away because earth got along so far that they no longer fitted in it. In history and romance there is a great tradition of dragon fighting, and that may mean that the last of the ptero- dactyls were cleaned up by men, but all the remnants we find of them are of such as were mired in swamps or caught by a change of weather and died from natural causes. Natural causes are going to relieve us presently of our mastodon money- getters if we can only have a little patience. A little money can dodge and duck under, but the mastodon for- (Continued on page 536.) “THE LINE OF LEAST RESISTANCE” FUTURE PUNISHMENT OF THE MAN WHO KISSED AND TOLD comicbooks.com TTT