Life, 1918-05-09 · page 17 of 40
Life — May 9, 1918 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine contains three distinct pieces reflecting American concerns during World War I: **"My Boy"** (poem by Clinton Scollard): A patriotic verse urging a young man to enlist and fight against "the Huns" (Germans) for England, France, and American freedom. It reflects 1910s-era recruitment rhetoric. **Tank cartoon** (top left): Shows soldiers warning of an approaching tank—likely satirizing early WWI mechanized warfare, which was novel and terrifying to contemporary audiences. **Saloon cartoons** (right): Depict a saloon switching from "Yesterday" (open) to "Closed" "And Tomorrow," with the caption "He laughs best who laughs last." This appears to reference Prohibition debates—sardonically suggesting saloons will eventually close. **"Lobsters and Kansas"** (bottom): Humorous commentary on a federal embargo preventing live lobster shipment to Kansas. The piece jokes that Midwesterners descended from New Englanders will lose their cultural/mental connection without this regional delicacy, mocking both regional pride and pseudo-scientific claims about phosphorus and intelligence.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
opt OMS “Look out, fellows! Here comes a tank!” My Boy ITH fife and drum the call has come; at last you've got the chance To strike a blow against the foe for freedom and for France, For all that England holy holds, our own birthright of joy, And T would I might be with you, O my hoy, my boy! The world were but a sorry place of sadly setting suns Were we to face (ah, dark disgrace!) the triumph of the Huns; Rather to smite by day and night where their grim hosts deploy, And I would I might be with you, O my boy, my boy! I know you will not falter, and I know you will not fail, Though the Great Will save not from ill and you should kiss the Grail; Across the tide in prayer and pride I send this last ahoy— And T would I might be with you, O my boy, my boy! Clinton Scollard, Lobsters and Kansas HAT is the Middle West going to do without live lobsters? The express embargo will prevent their shipment. There will be a surfeit of lobsters on the New England coast, but none in Kansas. The ancestors of most of the people who now live in Kansas came from New England, and were brought up on live lobsters, which are now about the only mental and moral link that binds their posterity to the de; rate East. Lobsters contain phosphorus, and phosphoru good for the brain. When they have lobsterless weeks in K: » what will happen? Will they straightway stop trying to bring the rest of the world up to their level? Will William Allen White lose his punch and Walt Mason have to eke out a living by writing for the Boston Transcript and Scribner's? “AND ToMORREW- “He laughs best who laughs last” WHEN HE TOLD HER HOW THE SUBMARINE WAS SUNK comicbooks.com