Life, 1916-04-06 · page 48 of 80
Life — April 6, 1916 — page 48: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Image:** "Well-Known People" shows a crowd scene with figures in period dress gathered around what appears to be a public event or announcement. The caption directs readers to "society papers" for identification, suggesting these are recognizable public figures of the era whose names Life's readers would know from society journalism. **Bottom Cartoon:** A domestic humor sketch depicting a child striking his father, with the mother scolding "Harold! You mustn't strike your father when he's asleep." The child responds, "But, mother, I'm a submarine." This is WWI-era satire—the joke hinges on the submarine as a weapon, with the child role-playing military violence. It satirizes both childhood war-play enthusiasm and perhaps the anxieties of wartime society. **Text Column:** A philosophical essay on foolishness, distinguishing between stupidity and a deeper inability to recognize others' perspectives—arguing fools are obstinate and amoral rather than merely slow-witted.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WELL-KNOWN PEOPLE READING FROM LEFT TO RIGHT—FOR THE USUAL NAMES SEE ANY SOCIETY PAPER essential to the true traditional fool that there is some- thing «wrong with him. He is not dumb as a tree is dumb ; he is dumb as a deaf man may be dumb. He is not stone-deaf, that is, deaf like a stone; he is rather what they call tone-deaf ; that is, he cannot help hearing things, and cannot help hearing them wrong. He is not sand-blind, or as blind as sand; rather he is blind drunk, something in his head, which is as abnormal as gin, prevents him seeing. The shrewdest, and certainly the funniest, little essay on fools can be found in the Book of Proverbs, and it dwells very definitely on this indescribable idea of obstruction and obsession. “ Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.” “Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly." The type is fierce and terrible; something almost like a demoniac. And this is profoundly true, for however physically slow or socially smooth the true fool may be, there is always a rabidity in his un- reasonableness, in his refusal to consider anyone else’s position or to reconsider his own. And this is due to a really philosophic cause which the Bible also grasped; that he does not, au fond, believe there is any right or wrong in things at all. He feels that his habits shall prevail over the habits of other animals. He has (Continued on page 665) “HAROLD! YOU MUSTN'T STRIKE YOUR FATHER WHEN HE'S “BUT, MOTHER, I’M A SUBMARINE,” comicbooks.com