Life, 1916-04-13 · page 13 of 46
Life — April 13, 1916 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features an illustrated scene titled "FROM A NOVEL — 'TWAS A BEAUTIFUL SPRING MORNING AND ALL NATURE SEEMED GLAD." The whimsical cartoon depicts anthropomorphized animals and nature elements in a pastoral landscape—trees with faces, cheerful creatures, and farm animals in an idealized spring setting. The accompanying text discusses Christian humility and national duty, criticizing citizens who concentrate complaints on the President rather than accepting shared responsibility for national challenges. The piece argues against dwelling on past mistakes ("sins of omission") and advocates for forward-looking repentance and humble acceptance of hardship. The juxtaposition of the cheerful pastoral scene with this serious moral commentary creates satirical contrast—the idealized nature illustration contrasts with the text's stern calls for civic virtue and acceptance of wartime sacrifice.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
if all of Christendom is purified by a great affliction and a tremendous effort, except the United States? Can it be that, after the smoke has gone, and the dead are buried, and the hurt are healed, and the maimed adjusted to new duties, there will be one great, fat, backward nation left on earth, and that will be us? E do not like that idea. It makes our safety seem a peril to us, our Prosperity a sort of sin. We do not wish to be the fat and selfish member of the family of nations. We are ready enough to be thankful for our bless- ings, but what about our duties? Have we shirked them? Have we anywhere hung back when we should have gone forward? Is it possible that the voice of Destiny has called to us and amid the clatter of our busy machinery we have not heard it? These are very serious questionings, and they have pushed their way into FROM A NOVEL many minds. Sins of omission are just as dangerous as the other kind. If we have dodged our dt'y we shall suffer for it, and we quake not a little at the thought. We quake because we feel so soft. We have slept in our beds while our brethren have been sleeping in ditches; our food has been plentiful, while tragedy and sorrow have been their daily meat. We bethink ourselves of Jeshurun that waxed fat and kicked, unmind- ful of the Rock that begat him, and got caught up with. We do not wish to repeat the behavior nor incur the subsequent experiences of Jeshurun. We do not wish to flout any of the Rocks that begat us, and if there is anything uncomfortable coming to us from what we have or have not done, we would be obliged if Destiny, without delay, would send home the goods. We don't want these arrears hanging over us. We would rather have it out with them now. Hence this TWAS A BEAUTIFUL SPRING MORNING AND ALL NATURE SEEMED GLAD” list towards humiliation. Now let us be humble ; now let us repent! HERE has been noticed a strong disposition on the part of a good many citizens to concentrate nearly all their humiliation on the behavior of our President. Whatever they conceive to be defects in our national deport- ment they charge up to him. They blame him for attempting to make us more neutral than we were; for omit- ting to make, in our behalf, a protest against the invasion of Belgium; for writing notes about the sinking of the Lusitania and haggling over that shock- ing crime, instead of treating it with a more peremptory resentment. They remember against him his rhetorical misfortune in suggesting that, under conceivable circumstances, we might be too proud to fight. They represent him as influenced by mean motives of politi- cal expediency, as too solicitous about (Continued on page 717) comicbooks.com