Life, 1915-10-07 · page 20 of 52
Life — October 7, 1915 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Section - "TRibutary TRibal TRoll"** by Arthur Guiterman is a playful alliterative poem mocking wartime rhetoric and propaganda. The cascading "TR" sounds parody grandiose patriotic language about war, sacrifice, and national duty—treating solemn themes with absurdist wordplay. **"Where Is Hall Caine?"** questions the silence of Hall Caine, a prominent British author of the era, regarding his public position on World War I. The piece expresses concern that this notable literary figure has failed to publicly declare his stance on the war, contrasting his absence with other contemporary writers' outspokenness. **Bottom cartoon** shows an artist discussing his avant-garde aesthetic philosophy while a friend reveals he's escaped an asylum. The joke satirizes pretentious modernist art theory—its obscure jargon and self-importance—by suggesting only an asylum patient would take such nonsense seriously. **"Different Financiers"** critiques war profiteering and debt accumulation, arguing that financial experts excelled at *creating* national debt during wartime but may lack skills to *reduce* it afterward.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
TRibutary TRibal TRoll 'Rumpet, TRombones! TRill, TRiangles! TRouveurs, TRoll TRochaic TRibutes! TRainbands, TRoop, TRaversing TRaffic! TRemble! TRaitors TRundling TReasure, TRemble! TRacing TRibulation— TRuly TRagic TRojan TReatment. TRavel TRustwards! TRanquil TRuant, TRailing TRuth’s TRemendous TRuncheon, TRigly TRailing TRopic TRophies! TRuculently TRapping TRimmers, TRouble TRanscendental TRiflers! TRipping TRumpery TRansplanters, TRouble TRoglodytic TRicksters! TRiturating TRuckling TRaders, TRouncing TRepidant TRaducers, TRampling TRemulous TRansgressors, TRead TRiumphantly, T. R! Arthur Guiterman. Where Is Hall Caine? ‘CENT observers have expressed their anxiety over the fact that the tailless cat will shortly disappear from the Isle of Man. We are much more concerned for another inhabitant of that domain—namely, Hall Caine. What has become of this gentleman? Is he the only author in Eng- land who has not expressed his opinion about the war? His disappearance from the ranks of contemporancous lit- erature is a matter for-genuine concern, Artist: YOU SEE, WE MODERNS STRIVE FOR THE PURGATION OF THE SUPERFLUOUS, WHICH THROWS TIE ACCENT ON THE INNER UR DO YOU FOLLOW ME? Friend: NO. 1M AHEAD OF You. ASYLUM LAST WEEK, I CAME OUT OF THE THE GUARDIANS Different Financiers (UNTUTORED individuals must not assume that finan- ciers are necessarily all of one typa During the past generation or two the situation has seemed to call for financial experts whose chief expertness lay in getting our municipalities and our states and our nation heavily into debt. They have done it well. Historians will look back at the job and agree that it could have been accomplished by none but the most marvelous of fiscalizers. But isn’t that work about completed? We can't go on forever owing more and more and more money. Some day, after the reasons have passed for using a large part of all tax col- lections as interest payments on our public debts, we must generate a new and a different race of financial experts. These will be no less skillful ana ne less respectable than the ones which now infest the country, but who knows but it may be their business to get us out of debt rather than into it! comicbooks.com