Life, 1916-01-27 · page 9 of 44
Life — January 27, 1916 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features a satirical illustration captioned "IN LONDON: 'IF I SAY MY PRAYERS TO-NIGHT, MAMMA, WILL THEY GET BY THE ZEPPELINS?'" The cartoon depicts a domestic scene with two adult women and a child in what appears to be an English home during World War I. The child's anxious question about prayers reaching heaven despite German Zeppelins (airships conducting bombing raids) darkly satirizes the wartime anxiety affecting British civilians. The accompanying text discusses English heritage and identity, contrasting British character with other nations while addressing wartime sacrifices. The satire targets how even innocent childhood faith becomes shadowed by modern warfare's horrors—specifically aerial bombardment, a relatively novel threat that terrorized British civilian populations during WWI.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“TPT SAY MY PRAYERS TOCNIGHT, MAMMA, WILL THEY GET BY THE ZEPPELINS ? gling past to the open sea, and Ameri- can blood ran warmer at the story. A little later, in Manila Bay, we found a friend. Things have gone better be- tween the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes since '08. The backbone of the United States is made of precisely the same materials as the backbone of the British Empire. It is English, Scotch and Irish. The language, literature and political ideals of the United States are of the same derivation. That is why in this world- crisis we have seen things as we have. It has not been that the British propa- sanda has captured us. It has been that, with the minds we have, we could not see the case otherwise than we have seen it. We have been for the Allies because we were born so; horn IN LONDON to the faith that is in them and to faith in them who hold that faith; born to the duty which they have accepted— to keep liberty alive in the world and maintain it against the domination of calculated and machine-made efficiency, To us of the English stock the Great War seems to bring a summons to wear our English derivation with somewhat more assertion. The Irish love Ireland openly and are not ex- pected to apologize; American Scots show an open kindness for Scotland ; Germans love their fatherland under any sun. Is it only to be England that men sprung from her loins care for? Who says that? Surely not we whose English derivation is all the root we have, who are lawful heirs of a aay not 145 DOME YE COG G “My LY Wy Yip Yy tradition and literature the greatest, all counted, since Rome and Greece. We have been too modest. Poll us in these States and we are a greater com- pany by much than all the rest, the longest planted here, and surely not the least powerful or least worthy. Who is the anchor at the end of the Allies’ rope in the great tug-of-war? Who but our blood-cousin, John Bull! There he stands, with planted fe sweating and sore beset; his muscles lame, but holding on Hold on, John Bull, hold on! There are those across the seas who care for you; who hold with you now in day- light and in dark so far as yet they may, and will gladly hold with you in face of all comers when Fate permits it. Hold on, John Bull! comicbooks.com