Life — July 19, 1917 — page 21: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This political cartoon depicts a heavily decorated military officer (likely a German general, suggested by the "Hohenzollern" text visible on his uniform—referencing the German royal house) standing at what appears to be a poisoned well. The figure represents militarism or German military leadership contaminating a water source, a metaphor for poisoning society or civilization itself. Civilians on the right observe the scene, suggesting the public witnessing the damage caused by military aggression. The cartoon likely critiques German militarism's destructive influence on European society, probably from the World War I era when Life magazine regularly published anti-German satire. The "poisoned well" represents how military power corrupts and harms the common good.