Life, 1918-09-26 · page 4 of 33
Life — September 26, 1918 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Cartoon:** The illustration titled "Strangers once, but lovers now" depicts a woman and a uniformed military officer in an intimate moment, with other soldiers visible in the background. The soldier wears what appears to be a WWI-era uniform with a medal. **The Context:** The accompanying text discusses the Liberty Loan drive, launching September 28th. The satire suggests romantic entanglements between American women and foreign soldiers (likely Allied forces during WWI) as motivation for war bond investment. The cartoon cynically implies that emotional/romantic appeals—particularly involving soldiers—will encourage citizens to purchase Liberty Bonds, conflating personal relationships with patriotic financial duty. **The Point:** Life satirizes how governments use emotional manipulation and romance narratives to promote war financing.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Strangers once, but lovers now Which means that the Liberty Loan number of Lire is coming in two weeks, The Liberty Loan drive opens on Sept. 28th, — the last day of the present week. On October 10th the great drive wilt be at its height, and it is pre- cisely at this psychological financial moment in the history of the world that the greatest patriotic number of Lire will work its will upon those few doubtful spirits who are still hesitating whether to invest all they have in Liberty Bonds or not. We shall be cheerful about all this. Don’t be afraid to buy this number because it will contain anything depressing. On the contrary, we will make you supremely glad that you live in a country where thirty millions of subscribers (more or less) not only have money to spend but are willing to back their own Uncle Sam to the limit. (Berlin papers please copy Open only to new subscribers; no sul ns renewed at this rate, hy: LIFE, 17 West 31st Street, New York. 50. Z L One Year, $5.00. (Canadian, $5.52; Foreign, $6.04.) x, / comicbooks.com