Life, 1916-09-28 · page 30 of 41
Life — September 28, 1916 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Illustration ("Half Past Closing Time"):** Shows what appears to be a military recruiting or enlistment scene in a pub or bar at closing time. Men in civilian dress and military uniforms are present, suggesting recruitment of soldiers—likely during World War I based on the wartime imagery. **Poem ("Salut Aux Morts"):** A serious anti-war poem by Harold Bullard lamenting the carnage of warfare. It contrasts the pageantry of armies ("banners gleaming") with graphic horror ("shattered backs and limbs"). The poem emphasizes shared humanity—English and German soldiers are all "children of Christ"—suggesting the futility of their mutual destruction. **Bottom Cartoon:** A customer requests a "mouth organ" (harmonica) from a music shop, with an ambiguous punchline about it being "in the line of a mouth organ." The joke's precise meaning is unclear today. **Overall Tone:** The page juxtaposes patriotic military imagery with anti-war sentiment, reflecting wartime ambivalence about armed conflict and mass conscription.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HALF PAST CLOSING TIME Salut Aux Morts ARMIES come marching by in surging sweep, With banners gleaming and sct, staring eyes; With hideous mouthing of exultant cries, And grinning howitzers and swords that leap. I sce the shattered backs and limbs they reap, The harvest which in war now fructifies, The ruddy vintage as it multiplies; And trampled o'er, the scarlet waste grown deep. The bugles shrick the armed hostility; The clashing hosts charge to their final bed. The sons of England and of Germany, -all children, aye, of Christ Who Bled! Go sweeping through man’s thunderous tragedy. They only reach the Light who are the Dead. Harold Bullard, 1 PRESUME,’ : 1 WANT A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT, SOMETHING IN THE LINE OF A MOUTH ORGAN, comicbooks.com