Life, 1917-12-06 · page 57 of 92
Life — December 6, 1917 — page 57: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes American home-front sacrifice during World War I. The main poem "Christmas Dinner, 1917" mocks wartime rationing and substitution—replacing real food with inferior alternatives like "peanut cutlets," "home-dried sugar-beets," and "butterine" (margarine). The phrase "chef d'hoover" references Herbert Hoover's Food Administration, which promoted voluntary conservation through rationing. The cartoon above depicts a social gathering where a man's popularity has mysteriously declined. The caption reveals it's because he's "engaged to a girl in his home town"—implying infidelity or divided attention was more socially acceptable than commitment. The two brief jokes below ("No Surprise" and "Antithesis") offer domestic humor unrelated to war themes. The overall tone is ironic: the poem pretends wartime austerity is festive and patriotic while clearly depicting deprivation. This reflects public frustration with civilian sacrifice during the war.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
OME dine with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove Of jubilant participation In prudent Yule-tide conservation: I'll give thee bean croquettes delicious, And peanut cutlets, most nutritious ; A store of home-dried sugar-bects (Hence we may cut out other sweets), Canned spinach, from the vacant lot, And eggless cornbread, nice and hot, With butterine, quite inexpensive, To yield calories more intensive We'll make from desiccated greens No Surprise RS. CRAWFORD: Did with a present at Christmas? Mrs. Crassnaw: No, he didn't I needed, and he was mean enough to go and get it for me. your husband surprise you I told him exactly what Christmas Life “ APA, is the F; once in a while the French Cabinet volu {TO BE AS POPULAR AS HE WAS AT FIRST. ATTER? “17 MAS JUST LEAKED OUT THAT HE'S ENGAGED TO A GIRL IN HIS HOME TOWN,” Christmas Dinner, 1917 A salad fit for kings and queens, While oatmeal jumbles, cheap and chaste, Supplant plum-pudding’s sinful waste The wassail-bowl shall thee allure With sparkling grape juice, mild and pure; The fire its cheerful glow shall shed, By hoards of daily papers fed; The phonograph shall lull our cares With all the patriotic airs, While every jovial approver Applauds each holiday chef d’hoover. If all these pleasures may thee move, Then dine with me and be my love well Stain Corinne Ro Antithesis we have in Ame my son; it exactly opposite nch government anything like the one For example. every untarily resig comicbooks.com