Life, 1916-10-12 · page 11 of 44
Life — October 12, 1916 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page contains two separate pieces of satirical fiction: **"The Only Man Who Didn't Get It"** depicts a German military ball during WWI. The illustration shows industrial machinery and a young officer. The story mocks a German soldier as "the only man in the German army who wasn't awarded the Iron Cross"—satirizing Germany's apparently indiscriminate awarding of military honors. The joke suggests that even mediocre officers received decorations, making the honor meaningless. The text references capturing regiments and destroying bridges, typical WWI combat claims. **"Method"** is a brief humorous dialogue about a hostess's cake, unrelated to the first piece. The magazine's wartime content reflects American attitudes toward German military culture and bureaucracy during or shortly after World War I.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Only Man Who Didn't Get It HE great ball at the Kaiserhof was at its height. Brave officers, so weighted with medals that they listed heavily to starboard, were dancing with beautiful women wearing from eleven to forty pounds of glass beads. Suddenly a murmur ran through the vast and glittering assemblage. A name passed rapidly from lip to lip. Great generals ceased their pirouctting to peer over the heads of near-by dancers, while field-marshals, Cabinet ministers and members of the Reichs- tag hurriedly placed themselves in po- sitions where they might obtain an unobstructed view of the person who had caused all the excitement. “Who is this man?” asked a ir damsel of her partner, a sturdy war- WHEN HE STOPS TO THINK rior of seventeen or nineteen years of age, clad in the uniform of an ober- lieutenant. “ What has ie ever done? Did he capture ten regiments of Rus- sians with one hand tied behind his back, or is he the man who butted the bull off the bridge?” Her partner gazed at her in aston- ishment. “My dear young lady,” he cried in pained tones, “where have you been keeping yourself? Of all the men who rose to greatness during the war, this man has achieved the highest pinnacle of success. He stands alone on the tip of the nation’s most ex- clusive and inaccessible peak of mil tary renown. Until the last page of history has crumbled into dust, his name shall shine out with all the bril- liance of a searchlight. Until—" “Yes, yes,” interrupted the maiden impatiently, “skip all that and tell me what it was he did!” “Why, my dear,” replicd her part- ner, “he’s the only man in the German army who wasn't awarded the Iron Cross!” assemblage while later the cheers, A moment burst into passionate strong men pressed forward, trampling women and waiters under foot in their eagerness to do homage to the greatest man in Germany, K. L. Roberts. Method ITTLE Willie had been invited out. “T want to make you feel quite at home,” said the hostess “But I don’t want-to fecl at home,” objected Willie. “At home I can only have one piece of cake.” comicbooks.com