Life, 1918-08-15 · page 34 of 36
Life — August 15, 1918 — page 34: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is a **letter from Life magazine's editors to servicemen**, likely from World War I era (references to "Huns," Berlin, and raising war bonds date this to 1917-1918). The satirical letter reassures soldiers about their girlfriends back home and updates them on the American war effort. Key figures mentioned: - **Charlie Schwab**: Industrialist managing munitions production - **Claude Kitchin**: Congressman handling war taxes - **William Jennings Bryan**: Former presidential candidate now promoting agricultural production ("garden truck") - **The President**: Woodrow Wilson The humor lies in the **casual, gossipy tone** addressing serious wartime matters—girlfriend updates mixed with industrial output and taxation. The decorative border of tumbling soldiers emphasizes the magazine's satirical nature. Life announces an upcoming "On-to-Berlin" issue and solicits new subscriptions, framing patriotic magazine reading as supporting the war effort. The tone is encouraging but somewhat tongue-in-cheek about civilian contributions to the war.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Letters from the Rear to the Front Ml Fellows: The girl next door that one of your boys wrote about is not going with anyone else, so don’t worry. She’sall right. S the The reason you haven’t heard from her is because the mails l ing have been held up. You couldn’t budge that girl anyway. Aeee She goes about as usual, but you can see in her eye that, so Bai far as you are concerned, it means business—no matter if the war should last for five years. Everything else is mov- ing along. Charlie Schwab is doing great work. There is some hitch about airplanes, and to save us we don’t know what it is, but they'll be coming along. The U. S. uniform with the high collar is getting some hard knocks, and maybe we will be able to make it more comfortable. Claude Kitchin is working over the taxes. Bryan is talking through the West on how to raise garden truck. The President is well. We have thought of another special number for Lire which will be announced soon. This makes two great patriotic numbers coming. Oh, well, we might as well tell you the name of the first, coming in October. It’s the On-to-Berlin number. We are not going to doa thing to the Huns in this number. Inthe meantime, next week we shall go gunning for subscribers. It’s about time to begin the fall season. We needa couple of hundred thousand more. The more people who read Lire the Special 5 better work they can do. It’s cheerful. Hoping you are Enclosed the same, find one Dol- Ye Several sample copies will be sent to any address on receipt of ten cents, to new subscribers; no si scriptions renewed at this rate. LIFE, 17 West 31st Street, New York. 54 “i One Year, $5.00. (Canadian, $5.52 ; Foreign, $6.04. 7: