Life — September 12, 1918 — page 17: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This appears to be a sketch-style cartoon showing an owl perched on a bare tree branch. The owl has distinctive facial features rendered with heavy cross-hatching in ink. The caption reads "Rooye, Baby" - a phonetic pun on "roo" (the sound an owl makes) combined with "baby," a casual American slang term. The humor relies on a simple visual-verbal pun: the cartoon depicts an actual owl making its characteristic call sound, presented colloquially as if the owl were addressing someone casually. The minimalist, sketchy rendering and the bare tree suggest a somewhat melancholic or wintry setting, though the lighthearted caption undercuts any darker mood. Without additional context from the magazine issue, the broader satirical target—if any—remains unclear.