Life, 1915-12-16 · page 32 of 44
Life — December 16, 1915 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine satirizes World War I attitudes, particularly regarding the Kaiser and German militarism. **Top cartoon** ("If I Should Die Before I Wake"): A man at a desk with a rat watches scales of justice, suggesting moral reckoning or the weighing of souls—likely commentary on wartime morality. **Main article** ("What Will Heaven Be Like?"): Satirical piece questioning whether Heaven will adopt Parisian customs or German "order and efficiency" after the war. The joke: Germans are so militaristic that only they'd want to go to Heaven if it operated like Berlin; the French would prefer their own destination. This mocks German rigidity and discipline as culturally unappealing. **Bottom cartoon** ("Receiving the Full Force of the Charge"): A domestic scene where a young man tries bribing someone to leave him alone with a woman, but she's already offered him money to stay—a joke about social awkwardness and romantic entanglement. The page's overarching theme contrasts American/French informality with perceived German severity during wartime.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“IF 1 SHOULD DIE BEFORE 1 WAKE” [F 2 man be industrious and his work is of value, we What Will Heaven Be Like? call him a busy person; if not, we call him a busy- body. HAT is Heaven to be like after the war? Is it to be Parisian, as heretofore, or a more exact and orderly elysium like Berlin, with not a pin out of place? Is it to be good form to bring one’s heels together and salute on meeting an angel, or will it be a place of easy manners? These questions are more than usually important be- cause every day so many good people are going there. If the Kaiser gets word from his Partner that Berlin im- provements have been put into the celestial lem, some different destination will have to be contrived for the heroic French. In that case only Germans will make any effort to get to Heaven. The rest will be asking which way to where the French are. “AJOW, Willie, let’s be frank with each other. What will you take an evening to let your sister alone while I'm with her?” “T can't take anything. You see, sister has already made “ RECEIVING THE FULL FORCE OF THE CHARGE” me an offer to hang around.” comicbooks.com