Life, 1918-07-25 · page 27 of 36
Life — July 25, 1918 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page contains two satirical pieces from World War I era: **"Another Hero"** (cartoon): Mocks wealthy Americans who avoided military service by giving up tipping as their patriotic contribution. The visual joke shows a well-dressed man with a suitcase—implying he traveled while others fought—presenting this trivial sacrifice as heroic wartime effort. **"Initiation"** (text): A dark fantasy where "Bill Hohenzollern" (Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany's emperor) is humiliated by Allied generals (Pershing, Foch, Haig, Wood) during a mock club initiation, tattooed with images of German atrocities (Louvain, Rheims), then sent worldwide as a recruitment tool. It's wartime propaganda portraying German defeat as inevitable and deserved. **"Is Our Zeal too Great?"**: Questions whether forcing a retired Philadelphia millionaire to work serves the war effort, sarcastically suggesting he'd be useless labor and ironically proposes relegating him to a vacant lot or Congress instead—commentary on upper-class exemption from sacrifice. All three pieces satirize class privilege and lack of genuine wartime contribution.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
8) ANOTHER HERO HE HAS GIVEN UP TIPPING FOR THE DURATION OF THE WAR Initiation AST evening the boys belonging to the New Democracy Club initiated a new member, Bill Hohenzollern, and, so far as can be learned from the somewhat meager re- ports, the affair was full of entertainment for all concerned. Bill came in an old, cast-off suit of armor, thinking thereby to protect himself; but the boys, who were John Pershing, Ferdinand Foch, Douggie Haig and Len Wood and others, were ready for him, and promptly blew off the entire suit with a blast of dynamite, thus releasing the proposed new member from all encumbrances. Hanging him up to a tree by his mustache, they then proceeded to tattoo upon him pictures of Louvain, Rheims and a whole series show- ing the deportation of women and children. Bill will, in this wonderful costume, henceforth travel around the wor'd for the club. He is expected to increase the meiabership of the club to include practically all of the inhabitants of the globe and what few Germans there may be left, Is Our Zeal too Great? MILLIONAIRE in Philadelphia who some time ago retired upon his fortune has been compelled by the authorities to go to work. If this principle is universally applied, however, will it prove to be useful? For is it not just as important to keep certain people from labor as it is to keep others busy? This millionaire has, presumably, never learned how to do any useful thing. He has always been taken care of by others. Probably the simple expedient of getting dressed in the morning, on his part, has called for outside labor of some sort. Is it wise to compel him to work for others, when the war will probably not last more than four or five years at the outside, and it would take him that long to be trained? The best thing to do with a man like that is to tether him in a vacant lot where he can do the least harm and get enough innocent nourishment without depleting the boys at the front. Or else elect him to Congress.