Life, 1918-05-30 · page 7 of 36
Life — May 30, 1918 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This WWI-era page contains two distinct satirical pieces: **"LIFE" Acrostic (Top):** The letters spell "LIFE" using hanging figures—dark wartime satire about casualties and waste. **"Wasted!" (Left):** A poem mocking a German soldier's failure to capture a French boy scout. The narrative describes the prisoner's refusal to provide information despite torture. The poem condemns this "wasted" opportunity, sarcastically praising the boy's courage and loyalty. It's propaganda celebrating Allied youth bravery against German brutality. **"Spanish vs. German" (Right):** An essay arguing Spanish should replace German in schools, claiming German is harsh while Spanish is musical and romantic. This reflects WWI-era anti-German sentiment and cultural nationalism—using language politics as wartime propaganda to delegitimize German culture in America. The illustration shows a slumped, defeated figure—likely representing German military defeat or moral failure.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Wasted!” Spanish vs. German HE German language is an absurd affair, full of harsh Robert Baden-Powell, addressing a central gutturals and strange inversions and ridiculous, far- tueeting of Bay Scouts st Guildhall, told of fetched word-combinations. It is spoken only in Germany. work done by French Boy Scouts in the On the other hand, there is Spanish. The Spanish lan- neighborhood of the fighting line. A heroic guage is full of music, of liquid murmurings, of romance. deed by one French Boy Scout was de- It is the language of love, of poetry, of knightly deeds and scribed in a letter found on the body of a ideals, of high adventure. Incidentally, it is the language dead German. General Baden-Powell read of business. the Tethers which follows: oo It may be that the war will succeed in banishing German A, traitor has’ been:sbot—a. little Erench from our schools and colleges and replacing it with Span- lad belonging to one of those gymnastic so- : : ; i ad. belong! ish. If so, generations to com oi cieties which wear the Tri-Color button. The o 8 ns to come will reap the benefit and be exceeding glad, poor little fellow in his infatuation wanted to be a hero. A German column was passing along a wooded defile, and the boy was caught and asked whether the French were about. He refused to give information. Fifty yards further on fire was opened from the cover of the wood. The prisoner was asked in French if he had known that the enemy was in the forest, and he did not deny it. He went with firm step to a telegraph post and stood up against it, with a green vineyard behind him, and received the volley of the firing party with a proud smile on his face. Infatuated boy; it was a pity to see such wasted cour- age.” London, May 6.—Lieutenant General Sir WASTED? 0 blind of heart, you wrote it wasted, The loyalty, the courage and the pride; Nay, you, who could but pity and deride That pearl of boyhood, smiling as he tasted The sacrament of death; you, who had hasted By steep descent from where the stars abide To heavy darkness; you, who had denied The gleam of God in your own clay, are wasted. Will not all lovers of the fair and true Forever see that little figure stand Erect against the post, to die for France? Her leafing April vineyard better knew The beauty of that deed than your dull hand, Wondering at honor, counting faith mischance. Katharine Lee Bates. “I WRITE just exactly as I feel,” said Smuck, the cele- brated dramatic cri “And the worst of it is,” replied Dobson, “you make “FROM BATTLE, MURDER AND SUDDEN DEATH, GOOD LORD, others feel the way you write.” DELIVER HIM” comicbooks.com