Life, 1916-01-06 · page 9 of 48
Life — January 6, 1916 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"An Ancestor"** is a poem by Clinton Scollard describing an elegant colonial ancestor—a dandy who was "slender" and "tall," wore fine clothes, and was "divine." The satire mocks the narrator's pride in this frivolous forebear, contrasting his fashionable idleness with the ancestor's supposed superiority. The decorative header with cherubs emphasizes the pretentious veneration of aristocratic ancestry. **"May-Happenings in 1916"** presents speculative anxieties about German sabotage during World War I. The cartoon depicts Time as a laborer "always on the job," while the accompanying text voices paranoid concerns: Could Germans capture New York? Infiltrate the White House? Sabotage munitions factories? These fears reflect American anxiety about potential enemy agents and war involvement as 1916 progressed.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
An Ancestor HIS the verdict I should render From his picture on the wall;— I should say that he was slender, Should aver that he was tall. And he wore a fancy frock-tail In a manner that was fine, Though he never quaffed a cocktail, This blithe ancestor of mine! Eyes wherein there lurked elateness, Merry mouth that loved a jest; No suggestion of sedateness In the ruffles on his breast. He'd a figure most entrancing To the maidens, I opine; Buckled shoes well shaped for dancing Had this ancestor of mine! Doubtless something of a dandy, Likewise something of a beau; Knowing well the ars amandi In the faded long-ago; Yet for all his careless seeming, He was given, I divine, More to deeds than merely dreaming, This blithe ancestor of mine! For to be the mould of fashion May not, soothly, mar a man; And in days of stress and passion He was plain American. To the land he loved the most, to This he pledged his blood as wine, So I drink a silent toast to This blithe ancestor of mine! May-Happenings in 1916 THs little 1916 is the anything- may-happenest year that ever began. This year the war may end: probably will; this year Henry Ford may stop it: probably won't. Gen- eral Joffre may stop it! Excellent man! This year we may get into it our- selves. Not at all unlikely! And if we do, we shall find out about a lot of things, whether they really have contents or have been filled with hot supposition. Do the Germans, as some papers have said, own one of the Bridgeport munition factories? If so, what have they been doing with its output? Could an armed force of Germans already recruited here and secretly organized, capture New York? Are we sitting on a ready-made German-filled volcano? Is a German spy furnace-tender in the White House? In Massachu- setts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, “always on the job.” Clinton Scollard. New Jersey and New York three out of every five people are either foreign born or children of foreign- born parents. We who live in these States do not need to be in Europe. Europe is in us. How will our local Europe behave if we get into the war? Of course, it isn't disproportionately German, but when the people of the States that are the chief arsenal and purse of the coun- try are so recently European, get- ting involved in a ropean war becomes additionally speculative. If we get on as far as June in 1916 without serious accident there will be nominating conventions in St. Louis and Chicago, if those cities are still in fair repair at that time, and the means of transportation to them are still available. And in No- vember we shall elect a President, if we are not too busy. But as to that, it is as with everything else that is booked for 1916,—we can’t tell. We know a lot is booked; that’s all. comicbooks.com