Life, 1916-07-06 · page 9 of 42
Life — July 6, 1916 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a poem titled "Vacation Prayer" by John Mather, accompanied by whimsical illustrations. The top shows cartoon figures of vacationing people in various states of hurried travel—carrying luggage, appearing frantic or exhausted. The poem humorously asks God to preserve natural wonders (woods, cathedrals, sky) while the speaker is on vacation, ending with the ironic prayer: "there I shall find You." The bottom illustration shows a woman resting beneath a large tree, captioned "Ghost of Colonel Bogey: HOLIE SAINT ANDREWS! HA' YE NO HAZARDS A-PLENTY?" This appears to reference golf, with "Colonel Bogey" being a golf term (a score one over par), suggesting the vacationer's thoughts turn to golf even during relaxation. The satire targets the modern tourist's inability to truly disconnect from worldly concerns during vacations.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Vacation Prayer OD of cathedrals, keep tall for me the woods of pine— Keep for me the sky, a dome sometime adorned with sun, Those far, sequestered aisles—resonant with hymn By still night a roof, star-sprinkled, darkly blue; Of winds, and tremulous with soft distances that shine And let me remember, when the long year’s round is done, And blend into wondrous windows, cool and dim. There is my own temple; there I shall find You. John Matter. Ghost of Colonel Bogey: Hotte SAINT ANDREWS! HA’ YE NO HAZARDS A-PLENTY? comicbooks.com