Life, 1916-01-06 · page 17 of 48
Life — January 6, 1916 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical cartoon mocks German claims of being a "civilized power" during World War I. The main illustration depicts chaotic violence—figures labeled with virtues like "Humanity," "Culture," and "Chivalry" are shown attacking or attacking others, suggesting these noble ideals are being violated. The accompanying text references Heinz Potthof, a German who proposed starving Allied prisoners and occupied populations into submission. The satire's core point: Germany cannot claim civilization while committing such atrocities. The repeated rhetorical questions—"Was what the Germans did in Belgium thinkable? Was what was done to the Serbs/Armenians thinkable?"—underscore the hypocrisy of calling Germany "civilized" given documented atrocities in occupied territories and against Armenian populations. The cartoon equates Germany's conduct with Attila the Hun, suggesting it represents barbarism rather than civilization.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE LIFE OF ATTILA THE SECOND. CHAPTER 1 Evidences of Civilization Unmerited attention has been given in this country to the violent utter- ances of Heinz Potthof, the German who lately proposed to compel the Allies to sue for peace by starving not only the prisoners of war held in Germany, but the population of the occupied territories. Unquestion- ably, if the war should become one of exhaustion, there would be terrible times for the unhappy people in the occupied territories. But that a civilized power should use their suf- ferings to extort peace from its ad- versaries is not thinkable. —Springfield Republican, BLESS you! Was what the Ger- mans did in Belgium “ think- able"? Was what was done to the Servians thinkable? Was what was done to the Armenians thinkable? ANCESTRAL TRAITS CROP OUT IN THE NURSERY Do you consider Germany a civilized power? Do you consider Prussianization a form of civilization? “Civilized power"! Tut, tut; your tongue, neighbor, must be in your cheek. Useless FRENCH statistician who for some reason has escaped the rigors of war has been estimating the waste in letters written by correspond- ents in newspapers, He says that over fifteen million dollars are annually squandered in England and over four millions in France by printing useless letters in the papers. In spite of this interesting fact, how- ever, we firmly believe that people will still continue to write letters to the pa- pers, just as editors write editorials, and authors write books. If They Told the Truth “ARE you that chair?” “No!” quite comfortable in “Do you ‘know, it’s a fact that T have never been seasick in my life— except constantly when I am on the water?” “Yes, doctor, IT do smoke, but not more than thirty or forty cigars a day.” “My darling, T love you more than anyone else in the world—just for to-night, and possibly excepting my- self.” Waiter: “It doesn’t make any differ- ence what whiskey you ask for, sir, it all comes from the same barrel.