Life, 1917-08-09 · page 38 of 42
Life — August 9, 1917 — page 38: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from Life magazine (likely 1916-1917, given WWI references) combines social satire with advertising and editorial content. **The Main Cartoon** ("The End of the World?") depicts a woman being attacked, likely representing Europe or civilization during WWI. The accompanying text reassures readers that despite war's brutality, civilization will survive and that conflict has created unexpected social benefits—deeper friendships and moral clarity. **The Social Satire Section** ("People One Meets Nowadays") mocks common wartime types: mothers using their sons' health to excuse them from military service, the self-important "German spy," the fake intellectual "author" anonymously writing letters to editors, and notably, the stoic girl whose boyfriend is fighting in France but never complains. **Overall Message**: The page reflects American attitudes during WWI—mixing gentle mockery of home-front society with pride in sacrifice and idealism about war's ennobling effects. The ads for Boston Garters represent typical commercial content interrupting editorial material.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
of the Season The New Double Grip Boston Garter] Two*'Velvet Grips,"* Satin Pads,Cable Wed A new grade far superior to any garter sold heretofore for less than 50 cents. Holds the sock at two points and in- sures neat and trim ankles. Ideal for year-round wear. Wom with any style or weight of underwear. not bind —is extremely light and gives the utmost security and comfort. Try a pair today. Ask for number 835 Boston Garter. 35 cents, “Double Grips,” 35¢-50c. “Single Grips,” 25¢-50c. GEORGE FROST CO., MAKERS, BOSTON People One Meets Nowadays At a Summer Resort HE woman who has with her a nineteen-year-old son, who spends most of his time playing golf, and of whom his mother is constantly saying: “John is frightfully anxious to go to the front, but he hasn’t been at all well, you know, and of course the President, 1 am sure, would think it quite bad policy for anyone to go who isn’t physically fit.” The sport girl with her own motor and no visible family. The family with no motor and no visible support. The Baptist clergyman who lectures for the Red Cross on Thursday eve ning in the ladies’ parlor on “ When the War Ends.” The bridge fiend who assaults you as you come out of the dining-room with his “ How about that rubber?” The woman who is known as the German spy. The “distinguished author” who employs a “secretary,” and who proves, upon intimate probing, to be the author of the vor populi letters to the editor which are appearing in cer- tain Canadian papers. The lonely, cheerful-faced girl whose boy is in France, but who never men- tions it. ESCULAPIUS, one of our oldest and best known physicians, has disc ed that a year's subscription to Lire will cure the most obstinate case of melancholia—Athens Courier. The End of the World? O. It’s not. She is. being pretty cruelly battered, but she will survive. This madness, this thing we call War, that attacks her at times, has terrible powers, but it hasn’t the power to last. While it’s here, there are some compensations. We are stirred to our depths, we are all more alive, more sincere. There was never such a time for true friend- ships, and for all that’s most real. The Metropolitan Magazine is fighting its part in this war. Read its searching editorials that keep just ahead of the times, its news of conditions abroad by the keen William Hard, its articles by Roosevelt that ring out across the whole land, its spirited, truth-dealing fiction, its words of the future,—that new and more vigorous age that is already dawning. It’s the kind of a magazine American homes need in war-time. ‘In the September Metropolitan—Just Out Snakebite (a complete novelette) The Balkans and Our Part in This War by ROBERT HICHENS by WILLIAM HARD An Editorial Message Adventures in Spiritualism by THEODORE ROOSEVELT by Metropolitan Readers Adventures and Letters of The Perils of Writing for the Movies RICHARD HARDING DAVIS by W. J. ABBOTT AT ALL GOOD NF WSSTANDS—AUGUST 8th comicbooks