Life, 1918-10-17 · page 14 of 38
Life — October 17, 1918 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon ("Life's Prize Pupil"):** Depicts a classroom scene where a teacher presents Uncle Sam to students, identifying him as someone who "lets the Central Powers understand that he is not engaged in any non-essential occupations"—a satirical reference to America's WWI neutrality stance, which the cartoon mocks as inconsistent or hypocritical. **"By Our Trained Pessimist":** A cynical column listing humanity's failings: slavery, generosity offsetting suffering, and the mind being "officered entirely by women." The tone is darkly comic misanthropy. **"At a Concert":** A brief joke about music soothing the "savage breast," juxtaposed with criticism of "The Watch on the Rhine"—likely referencing the famous German patriotic song—as inappropriate for "fighting Yanks." **"Preceding the Flag":** Cartoon showing military ships, unclear exact reference.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LITW'S PRIZE PUPIL By Our Trained Pessimist JX tering down the recent non-binding peace conference proposal by poor old wisps Austria, m lets the Central Powers under: 1 that he is not engaged TENCY —the last e c t t engage " : 3 ny nor ential occupations. refuge of mediocrity lavery were not vol- untary it would cease to exist We are generous in our ggardly in our pleasures. We are born with wisdom, or not; we acquire nonsense The mind’s subway is officered en- tirely by women, Civilization—the survival of the un- fittest. God sees you—even when you are in church. America’s greatest ex- It is not good for a man to be alone; that is why so many are bachelors. At a Concert “W LL, after all, music does soothe the savage breast.” “Tut, tut! Imagine ‘The Watch on the Rhine’ soothing a bunch of fight- ing Yanks.” PRECEDING THE FLAG (— comicbooks.com