Life, 1917-08-16 · page 28 of 40
Life — August 16, 1917 — page 28: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* offers satirical commentary on post-war Germany, specifically targeting the new Chancellor Michaelis (appointed 1917). The main text "Small Comfort" argues that Michaelis's personal religiosity is irrelevant—what matters is whether he worships the "mustachioed Gott" (clearly referencing the Kaiser and German militarism) or a more peaceful deity. The satire questions whether real change is possible under German leadership. The illustrated cartoon "The Old Swimming Hole at Hollywood Glen" uses animals (bears, monkeys) in a pastoral scene—likely satirizing either American excess or German disorder, though the specific reference is unclear without more context. Additional items mock: Lord Northcliffe's paper provision to American newspapers as enabling addiction; British medical board incompetence; and German "shock units" as disposable soldiers—comparing them to King David's biblical tactic of eliminating inconvenient soldiers. The overall tone is skeptical that substantive change will follow Germany's military defeat.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
268 “PRE Small Comfort T will be small comfort to the man in the street to learn that Dr. Michaelis, the new German Chancellor, is of a deeply religious turn of mind, The world has suffered excessively from the application of one form of German religion. What it needs now, and what Germany needs, is some rugged ikon-breaker who will go into the Teutonic Holy of Holies and smash to pieces the mustachioed Gott who blusters there. Even more important than the new Chancellor's views on war will be his views on religion. If it is the Kaiser’s Gott he worships, if it is some iron statue in a Prussian uniform t he makes obeisance to, then the world must still go grimly about its business of sword-sharpening. If, on the other hand, it is some divine Figure of Fellowship, some God an Kindness that Michaelis perceives in the clouds of war-smoke, dis there ground for the world’s hope; then indeed is peace made possible. Which God will Michaelis choose? ORD NORTHCLIFFE. will provide ‘eighty thousand tons of paper annually for American newspapers from his mills in Nova Scotia. That is like providing drink for inebriates. The great American excess is newspapers. But it might be worse. “We first endure, then pity, then embrace” The Medical Board Is King ISCOUNT HARBERTON men- tions “one of our recruits inocu- lated with lifelong paralysis as a sub- stitute for typhoid fever, in conformity with the regulations of the Medical Board.” That's in England But it’s nothing to what our Ameri- can medical board can do. Shock Units HE German shock units seem to he made up of Germans whose pres- ence in Germany after the war is not desired by the pre: the German army. The shock unit is an old device. It will he recalled by readers of Scripture that when it became inconvenient for King David to have Uriah come home from the war, he sent word to Joab to put him in the shock unit. There must be a lot of German sol- diers who know too much. ent management of The truth, THE OLD SWIMMING HOLE AT HOLLYWOOD GLEN Oo T of print comicbooks ayy