Life, 1918-05-30 · page 25 of 36
Life — May 30, 1918 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page contains three distinct satirical pieces: **Top cartoon**: Titled "Billy Begins to Realize What Is Meant by 'A War of Ultimate Exhaustion,'" it depicts a soldier in a cramped YMCA hut during World War I, surrounded by tedious activities (checkers, old magazines, piano playing, quarreling men). The joke is that the "war of ultimate exhaustion" isn't just about combat—it's the mind-numbing boredom and crowded conditions of soldier recreation facilities. **"A Reminder"**: Mock-scientific satire about a fictional "billiard" animal in Maine. The joke's punchline references Prohibition: the animal description is absurd enough to suggest that prohibitionists' warnings about illegal Maine liquor are equally ridiculous—you never know what you're actually drinking. **Bottom cartoon**: Shows a woman who has flagged down a train to ask a man for help fixing her car engine. His response—that despite her considerable effort to get him, he can't help—is humorous commentary on masculine incompetence and misplaced expectations.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE were wi Wi BILLY BEGINS TO REALIZE WHAT IS MEANT BY “A WAR OF ULTIMATE EXHAUSTION ” A Y.M.C. A. Hut Fry soldiers in a tiny room. A tin phonograph playing “ Over There.” \ game of checkers in a corner. \ bewildered private with a year-old copy of the Atlantic Monthly. The harassed secretary selling stamps Someone playing something on the piano. Two men quarreling. A soldier sticking chewing gum under a bench A Bible and some hymn books under a pile of papers. A couple covertly matching pennies. A boy writing home to his mother. A Reminder HE rare billiard has appeared again in Hurricane township, Maine, according to recent despatches. Maine residents familiar with the billiard state that it is an ani- mal about the size of a beaver, with long hind legs, short front legs, webbed feet and a hawk-like bill. It lives by fishing. Crouched on a grassy point overlooking a stream, it waits patiently until a trout rises for a fly. Then, with a swift leap, the billiard hurls itself toward the fish and brings its heavy, flat tail down on the water with a sicken- ing crash. Stunned, the trout rises to the surface, and the billiard dines at its leisure. Such is the billiard, . . . and when we read about it in the papers, it serves to remind us that when the natives of a prohibition state such as Maine visit one of the semi-public Maine saloons, they never know what the stuff they drink is going to do to them. A CIVIL ENGINEER “BUT, MY DEAR YOUNG LADY, AFTER YOU HAVE GONE TO SO MUCH TROUBLE TO FLAG THE LIMITED, 1 AM SORRY TO SAY THAT I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO FIX AN AUTOMOBILE ENGINE!” comicbooks.com