Life, 1918-03-21 · page 15 of 56
Life — March 21, 1918 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main cartoon depicts a man in formal dress and top hat standing among angels and clouds in heaven, speaking to St. Peter. The caption indicates he's asking if this is heaven and requesting to see St. Peter, who has apparently been "appointed food conservator" and is now seeking a substitute for "nectar and ambrosia." This is satirical commentary on American food rationing or conservation efforts during World War I. The joke mocks government food administrators by suggesting even in paradise, St. Peter must comply with earthly rationing policies—implying the restrictions are absurdly excessive or bureaucratically burdensome. The text below contains separate pieces on hop-smoking as a German tobacco substitute and various humorous society notices, typical of Life's miscellaneous satirical content from the WWI era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“EXCUSE ME, BUT IS THIS HEAVEN? “you'LL HAVE TO WAIT, YOUNG FELLOW. Hop-Smokers ELIABLE despatches from Am- sterdam inform us that the princi- pal ingredient of a new and popular German substitute-tobacco is hops. It has long been known that’ the smoke of hops, when inhaled, tends to induce soothing dreams and roseate visions. To hear the Germans tell it, Hindenburg is about to break the Western front into small pieces and cat the restaurants of Paris into bank- ruptcy, the Russians are ready to dis- gorge an indemnity of four billion dol- lars, the American army is sure to fall down and break a leg before it has a chance to fight, and the whole world is on the verge of groveling before the Kaiser and his noble army and suing for peace in shrill yelps. If the Ger- mans don’t stop their orgy of hop- smoking we may soon expect them to announce that their air-fleets are about to raid the moon and bomb it into sub- mission for daring to shine on their opponents. Kenneth L. Roberts, IF IT IS, I SHOULD LIKE TO SEE ST. PETER.” ST. PETER HAS JUST BEEN APPOINTED FOOD CONSERVATOR, AND IS NOW LOOKANG FOR A GOOD SUBSTITUTE FOR NECTAR AND AMBROSIA.” Collective Nouns Politically Defined for New York COMPANY: Mr. Wickersham, Mr. Pinchot, Dr. Butler. A Coterie: The Mayor, Mr. Unter- myer, Mr. Hearst. A Bunch: Mr. Amos Pinchot and the two Eastmans. A Gang: Mr. Murphy. Echoes *" UT of the mouths of babes—" Come some embarrassing fami- ly secrets in public.”