Life, 1918-09-19 · page 14 of 34
Life — September 19, 1918 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate pieces of satirical content: **"The Drafted Men"** (poem by Charlotte Perkins Gilman): A patriotic poem celebrating soldiers drafted into military service, praising their diverse ethnic backgrounds and commitment to liberty. **"Shades of Barnum"**: A prose piece criticizing a British gentleman who refused a lucrative American lecture offer. The author argues that revolutionaries like Lenin and Trotsky understand the practical necessity of earning money, suggesting that ideological purity divorced from financial reality is foolish. **Two cartoons**: - Top illustration shows soldiers being told not to attract women's notice - Bottom illustration titled "Camouflage" depicts civilians (likely children) hiding under bedding, apparently satirizing civilian preparedness or air-raid precautions during wartime The page reflects WWI-era American attitudes toward military service, international politics, and home-front preparations.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
410 The Drafted Men HEY left the farm, the shop, the busy trade, To fill the nks with ardor, keen and young, Each talki aily in a different tongue: Italians, . swart youngsters from Poles, Greeks, Armenians, undismayed By bar of speech or habitid Is like themselves. of chances sprung, Who the far-call of wider ways obeyed. Staunch citizens of a beloved, new land, Brave, stalwart, confident in’ brain and brawn, These soldiers, bred of liberty’s com- mand, Like bread upon the waters, hack om and to win release Jands that sent th of pei n forth in times Charlotte Becker Shades of Barnum we must not overlook AOS the tii &. that of Kerensky, gedies of the war This gentleman was offered fif hundred dollars a night to lecture in America, but the British authorities ereat wouldn't let him come. The only object of risking one’s life organizing revolutions in Europe is to make enough money out of it lectur- ing in America in order to retire for life. What is the use of going thre the trouble of having a revolution where if you are straightway to be cut out of your only means of making a living? What are Lenine and Trotzky going to do? How will they stand this blow to Kerensky? No wonder, when they heard about him, that they fled to Kronstadt. The American public must be sus- tained and soothed. In times of peace we are fairly well fed on philosophers and literary men from abroad, who furnish our ladies with mild, but neces- sary, forms of mental hysteria, But in time of war we must have stronger meat. The idea that any revolutionist “NOW, JANE, DON'T ATTRACT THEIR NOTICE "EM AWAY FROM THEM GIRLS who wants to do it should not be per- mitted to come get our money away from us is too sad for words “DOOR Billie! Since he married he are not say his soul is his own!” “That's nothing, Since Jack hitched up he dare not say that his meerschaum pipe is his own! IT WOULDN'T RE RIGHT TO TAKE y Safe for Democracy ] CUSTOME an, I'd like to hav ou explain why there are only forty-eight cards in this deck I bought here yesterday. Crerk (sweetly): Oh, th per fectly proper. Ever since the war Young wom- started we have been removing th kings, you know. CAMOUFLAGE comicbooks.com