Life, 1916-08-03 · page 31 of 38
Life — August 3, 1916 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page mixes serious and light content. The poem "Let Us Have Peace" by Benjamin De Casseres is a dark, allegorical vision referencing Grant's famous post-Civil War phrase. The poem describes a nightmarish chain of predation—eagle gripping hawk gripping chicken gripping worm gripping man—suggesting that existence itself is fundamentally violent struggle. The vision ends with "Apollyon" (evil personified) appearing as the sun sets on a tomb, transforming peace into bloodshed. It's philosophical pessimism about human nature. Below this serious work sits a humorous landlady joke playing on body image: one landlady keeps boarders thin to make them appear taller (thus "longer"), while her competitor's boarders look shorter because they're actually well-fed. The page also contains advertisements for luxury goods (Tiffany & Co.) and toilet powder, typical of the magazine's commercial side. The final cartoon shows a mother pressuring her reluctant child ("Robbie") to overeat, calling wasted food "expensive"—wartime or Depression-era domestic economy humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Let Us Have Peace” HE Sunset massed its bleeding swords against the marble turrets of the Tomb Whereon is graven the “Let Us Have Peace” of the warrior who sleeps below, And in that welter of fading fire and invading. shadow I beheld a vision. In the air, above the cupola, I saw a giant eagle Whose talons gripped a hawk, and who in turn carried a chicken in its beak. The chicken held in its mouth a worm, a slender worm, a worm out of the deep earth, That clutched with the clutch of fatal- ity a man, whose every nerve had been moulded In the murder-mills of the Struggle for Existence. And the letters of “Let Us Have Peace” turned to gutters of blood before my eyes, And a Face, ravaged with sinister- smiling wrinkles, Gleamed in the sun, now a huge red fire-ball sinking behind the Pali- sades. It was Apollyon, the Holy Ghost of Truth. Benjamin De Casseres. First Laxptavy: I manage to keep my boarders longer than you do. Seconp Laxptapy: Oh, I don't know. You keep them so thin that they look longer than they really are—Tit-Bits. | Qualyag P Fleurs filet Poer~ Softest and Loveliest | of All Talcums Park & Tilford ne Ane TIFFANY & CO. PEARLS JEWELRY SILVERWARE INTELLIGENT AND CAREFUL SERVICE BY MAIL FIFTH AVENUE & 37" STREET New YORK fe icine i cr “You'vVE GOT TO EAT SOME MORE, ROBBIE, Bobbie: 1 can IT's TOO EXPENSIVE TO WASTE.” comicbooks.com