Life, 1918-06-20 · page 23 of 36
Life — June 20, 1918 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes prominent American figures of the WWI era. The "Historic Boys" section features caricatures of **Victor Herbert** (composer) and **Willie Taft** (former President William Howard Taft), depicted as cartoonish characters with exaggerated features and labeled with their accomplishments and travels. The main text critiques **Rev. Billy Sunday**, a famous evangelist preacher. The author argues Sunday lacks genuine intelligence or religious authenticity but succeeds through theatrical, vulgar dramatics—applying showmanship to crude language and behavior rather than substantive preaching. The "Foreign Male Matter" cartoon appears to mock German military threat, with characters discussing potential bombing of New York while complaining about street conditions—suggesting casual dismissal of serious danger. The closing dialogue jokes about President Wilson seeking help from military/political figures, sarcastically suggesting he might eventually recruit Leonard Wood (a general and political figure), implying these men are predictable choices.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HISTORIC BOYS VICTOR HERBERT WILLIE TAFT Billy Sunday “THEY say the Huns are likely to bomh New York at any time now.” “Well, they can’t make our streets much worse than they are.” Rev. Billy Sunday is as famous a man as we have to-day. Certainly no one will claim he is a great preacher; certainly he does not preach the Christian religion. He is not a man of unusual intelligence. Why did the world grant him its attention? __—f . . W. Howe. Cc 2 he has a genius for vulgarity. Vulgarity, con- sidered by itself, is of no particular consequence and __a. does not attract attention. There is too much of it, and everybody has it more or less, But to make vulgarity dra- matic is what Billy Sunday has done, and of course he ~ deserves proper credit. If a man has dramatic qualities of a high order, and applies them to music, then he becomes a great musician ; to literature, and he becomes a great writer; to cratory, and he becomes a great orator. Billy Sunday has applied ~| his dramatic qualities to vulgarity, and made a holy show of it. He has taken a combination of cursing and swear- ing and slang and mud, and readjusted it according to cer- tain well-known dramatic principles. And that is why the | world listens to him, fe | “WwW L, I see President Wilson has asked Mr. Hughes “That's good. to help in the war.” Maybe some day he'll ask Leonard Wood.” FOREIGN MALE MATTER comicbooks.com