Life, 1916-06-08 · page 21 of 46
Life — June 8, 1916 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The "Leap Year" Cartoon:** Shows a woman proposing to a man—a reference to the tradition that women can propose to men during leap years. The caption's romantic declaration ("the feeling I entertain for you has long ceased to be that of a mere friend") depicts the reversal of typical gender roles in courtship, which was humorous satire on social conventions of the era. **"A Note to a Guide":** Arthur Guiterman's poem expresses longing to escape urban life for wilderness—reflecting early 20th-century romantic idealization of nature and outdoor freedom versus industrial city constraints. **"Finis?" (on war):** This satirical piece mocks WWI's stalemate by calculating that at current trench-warfare rates of advance, the war wouldn't end for 550 years (reaching Paris in 2466). It critiques both newspapers' fear-mongering and the war's apparent futility. **"At the Races":** A brief joke about class: a mother instructs her son to let the governess use field-glasses first, since the governess is responsible for watching him—a gentle satire on upper-class social hierarchies.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Ye yh 4 ia LEAP YEAR “AS YOU HAVE NO DOUBT OBSERVED, WILLY, THE FEFLING I ENTERTAIN FOR YOU HAS LONG CEASED TO BE THAT OF A MERE FRIEND——” 1077 A Note to a Guide EAR Tom-o'-Woods, good-day to you! T take a pen to say to you, I'd like to run away to you— A city is a jail. I loathe the walls that block. us in, The foolish rags they frock us in; I want to wear a moccasin And feel the mossy trail— To watch the forest shimmering, The morning kettle simmering, To know the flash and glimmering That dipping paddles make, To taste the breath of June again, To hear the calling loon again, To see the mirrored moon again Within a dreaming lake. A brook’s clear laugh is haunting me, A squirrel’s chirr is taunting me; I know the hills are wanting me— The hills I long to roam. Then fill a pack or two for me— Oh, anything will do for me— And patch the old canoe for me; Your boy is coming home. Arthur Guiterman, Finis? HERE is no reason to be- lieve that any of us will live to see the end of the war. At the present rate of fifteen feet six-and-one-half inches gain per day it will take the Germans a hundred and thirty years to reach Paris. Likewise, at the same rate it will take the Allies some four hundred and twen- ty years to reach Berlin, So that at the end of five hundred and fifty years, the sum of the two periods, or in the year 2466, the Germans will occupy Paris and the Al- lies will occupy Berlin, The end of the war is likely to occur during almost any cen- tury after that. Why, then, do our newspa- pers insist on frightening us to death with war features? At the Races OTHER: Tommie, you ought to let your gover- ness have the field-glasses first. Tommie: Why, mother! You know you said she was to look after me. comicbooks.com