Life, 1915-12-02 · page 56 of 100
Life — December 2, 1915 — page 56: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two satirical pieces by Don Marquis: **"Beautiful Souls"** (left): A dialogue mocking wealthy, spiritually-pretentious Manhattan socialites. Mrs. Dart enthusiastically cycles through trendy philosophies ("Cosmic Consciousness," "Subliminal Consciousness") while Miss Tolliver gently deflates her superficiality. The satire targets how such women adopt fashionable intellectual movements without genuine understanding, and how they're charmed by charismatic figures like a fraudulent "Swami" who was arrested for bigamy—yet they rationalize his crimes through spiritual language. The joke: spiritual posturing as social performance. **"Good Will Be D—d! Gott Strafe Non-Germans!"** (right): A wartime Christmas card design showing a German face surrounded by bullets. The German phrase ("God punish non-Germans") was an actual German propaganda slogan during WWI. This is anti-German wartime propaganda, mocking enemy nationalism. The page dates to America's involvement in WWI (1917-1918), when such caricatures were common.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ISS HERMIONE TOLLI- M VER. An oracle upon Art and Esthetics. Mrs. Auretta Dart. Plump, ecstatic, wealthy, fashionably gowned. She fives at an uptown apartment hotel, tokes a Serious Interest in Everything, is sometimes accompanied by a Chow deg and sometimes by a Captive Hus- band. - Auretia: We're taking up the Subliminal Consciousness this week— our little group of Advanced Thinkers, you know, dear. Really, Hermione, it’s wonderful—wonderful! Last week our circle took up the Cosmic Con- sciousness, you know. It would sur- you how different they are! Heraione (turning upon her friend a blue and dewy eye): Don't you think, Aurelia love, that it is possible to take up too many things? Avretta: It all depends, Hermione, dear, on the spirit in which you take them up. The new dances, for in- stance—the right sort of person will get only good out of them, and the wrong sort will get harm out of them. The Cosmic Consciousness is the same way. Hermione: But the Cosmic Con- sciousness, Aurelia love, sounds so chemical, somehow—so messy, you know, like it would be full of atoms and fungusses and funny smells, dear. And after all, dear, what is the good of your advanced ideas unless they lead you to Beauty? (Pauses, and murmurs with clasped hands and rapt expression): Beauty! Beauty! Beauty Auretia (admiringly): You are so spirituelle, Hermione—especially with those clingy silk things and sandals on. That's wonderful silk, Hermione, wonderful! It reminds me of the robes the Swami V—— used to wear. You never knew him, love, did you? He lectured to our little circle on psychology and spirit affinities, you know. He had such magnetic eyes, Christmas Life Beautiful Souls By Don Marquis dear! Eyes is not the word for them, really—orbs is the word. Hermione: Wasn't he arrested, or something sordid like that? Auretia: I believe so, dear. It was shocking. But he bore it won- derfully, You see, in his religion people are commanded to take several VASE OE eS ome Ae wives. But we are so narrow-minded in this country that the courts called him a bigamist, you know. There are seven spiritual planes in his religion— he told us all about them when he taught us to Go into the Silences— enly we never quite went into the Silences, you know, because some one Good WillBe D—d# Gatt Strate I one Germans! Ig DESIGN FOR A GERMAN CHRISTMAS CARD comicbooks.com