Life — August 23, 1917 — page 25: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains five comic panels depicting chaos and violence in everyday situations—a household in disarray, a hotel patron's violent complaint, passengers forced to stand on a crowded train, a customer intimidating a shopkeeper, and a child refusing bedtime. The title "If We All Practiced Frightfulness" suggests satire about German military tactics (Schrecklichkeit/"frightfulness" was a WWI-era concept). The humor lies in applying brutal intimidation to trivial civilian complaints: waiting for change, hotel bills, train crowding, and children's bedtime resistance. The satire mocks both aggressive behavior and the absurdity of escalating minor inconveniences to violence—suggesting that if everyone adopted aggressive intimidation tactics for petty grievances, society would collapse into absurdity. The page appears to advocate for restrained, reasonable conduct instead.