Life, 1918-08-08 · page 26 of 36
Life — August 8, 1918 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains WWI-era American propaganda satirizing Germany and Kaiser Wilhelm II. **"The House That Gott Built"** is a cumulative nursery-rhyme style poem mocking German responsibility for the war. "Gott" (God) is a pun on the German name, satirizing German claims of divine favor. The poem traces consequences from the "Hun" (dehumanizing term for Germans) through victims, Liberty Bond fundraising, to Allied victory. **"The Kaiser Is Worried"** discusses Wilhelm II's apparent mental distress, reporting (via London sources) that he envies his generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff, and may be seeking peace while his war-party prevents it. The satire suggests the German leader has become a "Frankenstein" unable to control events. **"The Fountain of Youth"** cartoon at top depicts old soldiers being rejuvenated between an "Old Soldiers Home" and "U.S. Army Recruiting Station"—likely satirizing recruitment of aging veterans. **"Bill Has Lots to Learn"** is an unrelated poetic joke about American military inexperience with modern warfare technology. The page overall reflects American wartime sentiment portraying Germany as responsible aggressors and the Kaiser as a weakening, worried leader.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
IF IT WERE ONLY IN EXIST! The House That Gott Built HIS is the house that Gott built. This is the Hun that lived in the house that Gott built. This is the hate that filled the Hun that lived in the house that Gott built. These are the victims, mangled and torn, that succumbed to the hate that filled the Hun t lived in the house that Gott built. These are the Liberty Bonds galore that backed up the boys from the Yankee shore against the house that Gott built. This is the victory, sure and swift, that came to our boys from the land of thrift, that avenged the victims, mangled and torn, that succumbed to the hate that filled the Hun that lives no more in the house that Gott built. The Kaiser Is Worried l any kind person has sympathies that are not in active use, he might do worse than to employ just a few of them on the Kaiser. For the Kaiser not only is in very bad, but gives a good deal of evidence of being aware of it. What one reads about him has to be taken with doubts and allowances, but here a line and there a line in the papers—here a report and there a whisper—represent William as giving a pretty lifelike impersonation of Frankenstein deeply worried about the antics and disposition of his mon- ster. A London dispatch in the Sun of THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH July 15 declared that the Kaiser is suf- fering from intense jealousy of Hin- denburg (if alive) and Ludendorff, and that that impelled him to have KuehImann tell the Reichstag that a German victory could not be obtained by military force. It is likely that on off days, when his ginger is low, Wil- liam realizes that he is beaten, and in- clines to make the best of it, but can’t, because the General Staff and the war-party won't let him. The papers reported that he had counseled the Prussian House of Lords not to expel Lichnowsky, who revealed so. incon- “ Seated one day at the organ, I was weary and ill at ease” £ TO-DAY, WHAT JOY FOR VETERANS OF ‘61! siderately how Germany brought on the war, but the Lords expelled him, all the same. We may yet see the Kaiser at the head of a revolutionary move- ment to oust the Junkers and make Prussia safe for Hohenzollernized democracy. In most countries, after a man has talked like a lunatic for thirty years, and had his delusions ex- posed at cost of thirty or forty million lives, it would be impossible for him to excuse himself and get a new trial. But perhaps it is possible in Germany. It may be that in that curious country the leopard can change his spots and be accepted as a victim of cir- cumstances. Bill Has Lots to Learn HERE be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four, which I know not: The way of an Allied plane in the The way of a destroyer in the sub- filled seas; And the way of a Yankee with a gun, DITOR: You a modern poct. “Yes, sir.” “Your work doesn’t show it. Why, these poems of yours must have all been written last year.” say you are comicbooks.com