Life, 1918-09-12 · page 26 of 34
Life — September 12, 1918 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon depicts **"The Outlaw,"** showing a ragged, disreputable figure (representing Germany or a German leader) interrupting a formal military ceremony. The figure suggests the assembled officers could inject more "patriotism" by letting him dress up to resemble the Kaiser—a crude joke suggesting Germany's leadership is fundamentally lawless and absurd. The accompanying article argues against exterminating Germany after World War I, contending that Germans have destroyed themselves through moral corruption and internal hatred. Instead, the author advocates military defeat and dismantling the Hohenzollern dynasty as sufficient punishment. The bottom cartoon shows a monk at a window, asked why he enjoys a depressing view—likely commenting on monks taking unhealthy pleasure in bleak perspectives, though its specific satirical target is unclear from the visible text. Both pieces reflect wartime-era arguments about Germany's fate during or immediately after WWI.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Outlaw: GENTS, ENCUSE ME RUTTEN IN, RUT IT SEEMS To ME YE COULD GIT A HEAP MORE PATRIOTISM INTO THIS HERE CEREMONY IP YEZ LET ME MAKE UP TO LOOK LIKE THE KAISER is coming to them there is no escape, and they must it. There is no use of talking extermination for a people in such a plight as that. Their worst enemies that they cannot escape are themselves and their appalling record. Since they broke bounds four years ago, not anywhere they have been have theyleft friends behind (except as they bought them), but in all cases and countries passionate enemies. The people they have conquered hate them; their allies hate them; they hate one another. Coop them up, and shut down on their great industry of foreign pillage, and the chances are they will destroy and pillage one another. There is no need to exterminate the Germans. If bad Mood, bad morality, bad teaching and bad leadership do not do the job, guns and gas will not do it, and it may as well be admitted that they are imperishable. They have chosen evil to be their good; they have fed their souls on hatreds. Of that choice and that diet the fruit is death, and they will taste it abundantly. But they will neither be exterminated by the Allied soldi nor all die miserably from the results of war, but as th the Thirty Years’ War so th possibly, if they really are incurable, do further mischief some future day. Kill their soldiers, beat down their defenses, crowd them hack till they quit with all the lawful military punishment that course implies. Smash Essen; take Berlin; destroy the House of Hohenzollern, But as to exterminating the Germans—nonsense! It can't be done. The job is to pro- vide them with a cure, so that those who are curable—if there are any—may be reclaimed. B.S. M. Monk: WAT pO YOU SEE OUT THAT WINDOW THAT YOU LIKE SO MUCH? 1 THOUGHT THE VIEW WAS DEPRESSING