Life, 1918-07-25 · page 14 of 36
Life — July 25, 1918 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes **profiteering during wartime**, likely WWI era. A rotund businessman labeled "Home James" sits contentedly in a luxury automobile, his lap overflowing with money bags marked "$". A woman (possibly representing the nation or a war widow) stands outside looking in, while the caption references Gray's "Elegy" ironically—contrasting the poem's humble laborer with this wealthy war profiteer. The joke: while soldiers fight and ordinary citizens struggle, domestic businessmen grow fat on wartime contracts and inflation. The "homeward" journey is not earned labor but exploitation of national crisis for personal gain. This reflects Progressive-era anger at industrial titans accumulating fortunes while the nation mobilized for war.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“ The ploughman homeward plods his weary way” (With apologies to Gray's “ Elegy”) Rb. One of the recent arrivals at Camp Dix was a youth so round-shouldered that he looked hump-backed. He was also dull and listless, The orthopedic department took him in hand, mas- saged him, baked him in an electric heater and straightened his spine. To-day he walks with shoulders squared, head erect and chest out, and is bright and alert your chest Does your back bulge ou! Do your ankles hit When you walk about? Is there something wrong With your spine or neck? Do you feel at times Like a perfect wreck? Are your nerves on edge? Does your head feel bad? When you read the news Does it make you mad? Are you losing hair Or your appetite? If so, here's the stuff That will set you right: AMUEL, Ph.D, orth America. | Office hours, 12 M. to 12 M | 1 O. D. khaki suit. 1 Modified Enfield rifle. 1 Complete kit. 1 Sojourn at an army cantonment. 1 Day of drill after another. Uscie Samurt, Ph.D, Full Steam Backward APOLEON had The first was Moscow, annihilated by going forward. Hindenburg and the German army will be victims of the same historical paradox. The Teuton army is heading for defeat by winning victories. It is easier for them to get to Paris it is to get back to Berlin. The German army will never reach Berlin, History will describe it as the retreat toward Paris. Old Hands at the Game OOD HOARDER: would be the best way to conceal these three barrels of sugar. His Wire: Why not write to your cousin in Maine, and ask her how they hide their whisky? two Waterloos. He was I wonder what THE LAST STRAW POLYGAMY Men and Greatness great men expect great faults. If they come to high place. the posi- tion that makes their abilities important increases also the importance of their defects. The most that can he expected of any man is that the good in him shall predominate. If his virtues out- weigh his vices, his assets outweigh his defects, and his abilities his disabili- ties, he must be rated as a valuable man, And for certain specific jobs, or in certain crises, the possession of par- ticular powers or qualities in a high degree may make a very faulty man indispensable. There is lots of luck about greatness. The carth is full of seeds, and some of them get where they belong and produce their like. So it must be that the great mass of mankind is full of abilities, of which some find develop- ment and occasion, and come to great usefulness and renown, and vastly more merciy develop enough to meet the demands of a restricted tunity. You can’t make a great man out of poor materials. He must have the stuff in him, But he may have it and still, for lack of recognition, or advertise- oppor- ment, or means, not come to his own. As a rule, and particularly in’ these times, greatness requires, like most other important things, to have intel- ligent pushing power behind it, comicbooks.com