Life, 1918-02-07 · page 12 of 40
Life — February 7, 1918 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes railroad travel conditions through two captioned illustrations. "An All Night Debauch" (left) shows shoes and debris scattered on a train floor, mocking the chaos of overnight rail journeys. "A War of Attrition" (right) depicts a man clinging desperately to a train's exterior, struggling against wind and motion—likely satirizing the difficulty of boarding or remaining aboard moving trains. The accompanying text offers mock-serious "directions to travelers," humorously advising passengers to prepare extensively (sleeping bags, portable stoves, rations) as if embarking on wilderness expeditions rather than train rides. The satire targets poor railroad conditions, unreliability, and the physical ordeal of rail travel in this era, treating routine journeys as epic endurance tests.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
212 ‘1G IE - Railroad Traveling in the Near Future Directions to Travelers RSONS desiring to take a trip on an American railroad should provide themselves with at least one week’s rations, preferably pemmican or some durable substance. It is also highly important to take along a portable oil stove, a fur-lined sleeping-bag and a com- plete suit of oilskins. No traveler will, of course, undertake a journey if he has other engagements or a note coming duc. He should, in advance, prepare his mind for all emergencies and, bidding good-bye to home and friends, look forward to the future with calmness and resignation. On entering the railway station from which he expects eventually to depart, he should always carry with him a small camp stool upon which he can sit while waiting on the line to buy his ticket. After this feat has been accomplished he should then move along to the outer platform, where a government official will inform him of the exact day or week that the train is expected to depart. Once on the train, he should imme- diately wrap himself up in his sleeping-blanket and prepare to wait for the final hour when the train will leave the station platform and make its way out into the train yard, where, in company with other trains, it will meekly its turn to depart in the direction of its ultimate destination. The traveler, gt this point, should not endeavor to hurry the train forward, or do anything to excite himself. He will need all the strength and courage he possesses to keep him going during the coming journey. He should be calm and resolute. At times there will come over him an over- weaning temptation to read something. This tendency he should sternly resist. Many travelers, in endeavoring, at the beginning of a journey over an American railroad under government control, to decipher print, have lost the use of their eyes, and have henceforth, as long as the jour- 0 lm AN ALL NIGHT DEBAUCIL A WAR OF ATTRITION |