Life, 1917-07-05 · page 17 of 40
Life — July 5, 1917 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This WWI-era satirical page contains three distinct pieces: **"The Pirate's Treasure"** (top): Shows two young women in bathing suits on a beach, likely representing the "treasure" soldiers hope to enjoy if they survive the war—a common joke about soldiers' motivations during WWI. **"Will the Old Mount Take Another Bar?"** (bottom left): A caricatured mounted soldier (appears to be German, given the context) is depicted as an aging horse being asked to take on additional weight/burden. The timeline markers (1914-1917) suggest Germany's capacity is being tested after years of war—satirizing Germany's diminishing ability to sustain the war effort. **Text sections**: "Downfall of the Turks" reassesses Turkey's reputation, noting pre-war Western condemnation of Turkish cruelty now seems less severe compared to German atrocities. "Bad Outlook for William II" references Kaiser Wilhelm II, suggesting Germany's defeat is inevitable. The overall message: Germany's resources are exhausted, and historical moral judgments are being rewritten by WWI's horrors.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE PIRATE'S TREASURE IF THEY ONLY KNEW S he know what fear is?” He fears that he won't get to the front WILL THE OLD MOUNT TAKE ANOTHER BAR? Downfall of the Turks T is curious and interesting to think how Turkey been vindicated in the present war. For generations Turkey has been held up as the red-handed murderer, as the past master of every form of cruelty and atrocity. There were other murderers, but they were mere amateurs compared with the And the particular reason, people averred, why was so unspeakably bad was because Turkey was non-Christian. Nobody could think of anything bad enough to say about the Turks with their wholesale methods of torture. How different do they now appear! Beside the Germans they are innocent babes vas, WAR lord cat fight some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but he cannot fight all of the people all of the time. Bad Outlook for William II ‘I ] hall follow the generations of his fathers and shall never see light."—Psalms 49-19 (prayer-book). comicbooks.com