Life, 1917-12-06 · page 30 of 92
Life — December 6, 1917 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents Arthur Guiterman's poem defining "camouflage"—a concept newly relevant during World War I. The poem catalogs camouflage's uses across society: romantic deception (makeup, false curls), commercial fraud (fake cures, inflated stock schemes), and literary pretense (bad prose disguised as verse). The cartoon below depicts **the German Kaiser** in five different poses, each supposedly showing how he "stands the strain" of war according to recent interviews. This is political satire mocking either the Kaiser's actual public statements or press reports about his condition. The multiple contrasting poses suggest his accounts are contradictory or fabricated—another form of camouflage. The pairing is purposeful: the poem's final stanza explicitly lists deception used by those in power ("thrones and kings"), making the Kaiser cartoon a visual demonstration of governmental camouflage during wartime.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WHAT's Camouflage ?—The juggler’s trade ; Delusion, glamour, masquerade ; The mummer’s artifice, designed To make the Sense betray the Mind; The tint of rouge, the scent that clings, The curl that grew not where it swings, The touch that thrills the blood of man, The soft, shy glance behind the fan; The sweet, low laugh of badinage— That’s Camouflage. What's Camouflage ?—A web for flies; The mist that blinds the lover's eyes; The dainty scrap of this or that Which ransoms yester-season’s hat ; The sauce that turns the humble stew To some delectable ragout ; The motor-builder’s happy scheme To make the humble chariot seem A car from Creesus’s garage— That’s Camouflage. Christmas Life Camouflage What's Camouflage ?—The printed lure That promises the wondrous cure ; The caster’s fly of colors gay, The mining stock, the smooth toupet, The bluff that screens the empty purse Or masks untidy prose as verse, The veil of picturesque romance That changes theft to High Finance And treachery to Sabotage— That's Camouflage. What's Camouflage ?—Oh, many things! The pomp and pride of thrones and kings; The gambler’s hope; the rosy wreath That fades and leaves the thorns beneath ; A wrecker’s light; the phosphor glow Some mocking star has cast below To make the eyes of men behold Their gold as dross, their dross as gold; The zealot’s vision, Fame’s mirage— That’s Camouflage! Arthur Guiterman. HOW THE KAISER STANDS THE STRAIN ACCORDING TO HIS LATEST INTERVIEWERS comicbookg