Life, 1916-06-22 · page 33 of 48
Life — June 22, 1916 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page contains two separate satirical pieces: **Top cartoon** ("Little Girl: Willie, Mamma Says It's Time to Milk"): A rural scene where a child calls to another child to help with milking chores, using the cow's name "Willie." The humor likely plays on the child mistaking the cow for a person—or satirizes rural life's demands on children. **"Prophecies" article**: Satirizes public appetite for predictions and fortune-telling. The author mocks the market for "prophecies," suggesting a bureau should be organized to manufacture fake predictions systematically, since people eagerly believe transparent frauds anyway. **Final paragraph**: Critiques military conscription by arguing that if a country mandates compulsory vaccination to protect youth, it's hypocritical to then impose compulsory military service that teaches young men "how to get shot"—a dark joke highlighting the contradiction between protecting public health and sending conscripted soldiers to potential death. The page satirizes gullibility, false prophets, and government hypocrisy regarding youth welfare.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Little Girl: wituik, MAMMA SAYS IT’s TIME TO MILK Prophecies “RET bureau for putting first-class prophecies upon the market at opportune moments ought to be organized. A staff of antiquarian writers would grind out musty-looking auguries at the command of their chief, the latter a man of great ability in recognizing prophetic pos- sibilities among the items of the day’s news. A secondary staff in the employ of the bureau would stand ready to unearth the prophecies in divers corners of the world, at the command of the chief. Such an organization is fully justified, because it is un- questioned that we want prophecies, and want to believe in them, and because the demand has thus far been satis- fied by but a meagre assortment of transparent trumperies which show a need of both skill and organization. T is not to be expected that a country that resorts to com- pulsory vaccination to protect its youth should consent to compulsory military service that would teach them how to get shot. DINNER FOR TWO. comicbooks.com