Life, 1916-09-14 · page 16 of 38
Life — September 14, 1916 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece from *Life* magazine (September 1, 1916) mocks the Russian Imperial family during World War I through a fake letter from Czarina Alexandra to Queen Mary of England. **The joke:** While Russia suffered massive casualties and hardship from the war, the Czarina complains about trivial aristocratic problems—servants quitting, difficulty finding cooks, cancelled parties. The absurdity lies in her self-pitying tone about "wearing holes in the steps of employment agencies" while her country hemorrhaged soldiers and resources. **Historical context:** By 1916, Russia's war effort was collapsing, with widespread discontent about the royal family's perceived indifference to suffering. This satire exposes that disconnect—the royals' disconnection from reality becomes the target. **The smaller cartoon below** shows two figures discussing a dachshund, with one saying "That is—yes—or rather perhaps—I don't know." This likely references German dachshunds becoming unpopular in Britain during WWI due to anti-German sentiment, making ownership socially awkward. The satire's point: Imperial excess and obliviousness during national crisis.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
444 A ‘Letter from the Czarina to Her Royal Cousin, a Mary of Englan The Czar has 30,000. servants in his various palaces and residences. Jews item. Petrocran, Sept. 1, 1916. AR COUSIN MARY: This summer has been the worst I have ever known. The people who think that the royal families don’t suf- fer because of the war would have en- joyed being in my shoes. Eleven hun- dred and forty-eight cooks have left me with only two weeks’ notice dur- ing the past few months; and I have worn holes in the steps of every em- ployment agency in the city. Frequent- ly Nicholas has returned from the front, eager for a square meal, only to find that the cooks in half our palaces have taken French leave. We some- times have to ride two or three hun- dred miles before we can find one of our palaces that has a cook capable of opening a bucket of caviare. My nerves are in tatters, my dear. We were going to have an enormous party in a number of our palaces at the same time, to celebrate the fall of Lemberg; and only three days before “THAT'S WHAT A FELLER GITS FER BEIN’ POPULAR WITH TH’ LADIES.” the party started I discovered thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine that eight hundred and forty- servants have left me this year. Seven one of my most reliable butlers hundred and three got roaring drunk had gone and got married to and had to be fired. One hundred and cight hundred and forty-one of cight blew themselves up while taking my most carefully trained sec- bombs out of the mail boxes, three ond-maids, and bought farms in hundred and cighty-seven got sick or the country. My dear, I was a broke a leg or something, and the rest wreck! Of course, our party just quit. Sometimes I wish that the was a hopeless sale of vodka had not been prohibited, failure, for the for I often feel like going out and guests had to mix drinking myself into a stupor. their own cock- If you have four or five hundred tails; and two or good cooks that you don’t need at this three of those writing I wish that you'd loan them amateur cocktails to me until the war is over. would make a Your loving cousin, couple of rabbits ALEXANDREVNA, fight each other to Czarina of All the Russias. a finish, you know. K.L. R, Their effect on , 5 = Grand Dukes is Unele Sam: CHARLIE, 18 THAT YOUR DOG? . ae at 5 ” Pee ar oe ves oe oaea emake oon’y - Smmply’ malicious! E says she’s a woman of means, xxow.™ All told, eleven ‘es—she means to marry him.”