Life, 1918-11-21 · page 7 of 34
Life — November 21, 1918 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **Life magazine content page** featuring two short stories: "The Test" and "Purely Private." The **top illustration** depicts a crowded village scene with the caption "OUR VILLAGE CAN'T WAIT FOR THE RETURN OF ITS FIRST WINNER OF THE WAR CROSS"—a reference to World War I. The image shows civilians gathered around what appears to be a homecoming or civic celebration. The **stories themselves** are domestic social commentary rather than political satire. "The Test" explores a husband-wife dynamic about wartime spending and sacrifice. "Purely Private" discusses a serviceman's letters marked "Private." This page reflects **WWI-era American concerns**: home-front patriotism, economic anxiety, and the emotional impact of soldiers' service. The magazine used such fiction to address contemporary civilian experiences during wartime, treating private domestic matters as relevant public interest.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
OUR VILLAGE CAN'T WAIT FOR THE RETURN OF ITS FIRST WINNER OF THE WAR CROSS The Test “I MUST have clothes.” The young and beautiful woman looked at her husband appealingly. “What kind of clothes, dear?” he sked. “AIL kinds—sables and other furs, house gowns and street gowns and evening gowns, party wraps, tailor- made suits, lingerie—everything in the way of clothes. Regardless of the war, regardless of expense, regardless of everything—I must have clothes.” THE ENEMY BRINGS UP HIS LAST LINE. OF RESERVES He wrote out a check for five thou- sand dollars. “Here, dear,” he buy what you want. . “go out and I can never re- She disappeared, The next day she returned. There they were—clothes of every description; but not what she described—children’s clothes, woolen wraps, flannels, sweaters, blankets, mufflers. They were more suitable for convalescent soldiers and impoverished non-combatants than for a_ society woman. He gazed at them in desp “What does this mean? “T knew that if I asked you for he asked. something more to win the war with, you would say you had already gone the limit. So I asked you for some- thing that I had not asked for so long that, knowing the masculine mind, I believed that you would be fooled into giving me. Was I right?” , darling,” he replied. “TI gave you that money because I knew that, being a woman, even if you had a sud- den impulse to wear expensive clothes, you would, in the end, wind up by do- ing just what all the other women are doing.” Purely Private “A Y boys in the service, Nancy?” “No, ma’am. I only got three girls; but mah son-in-law, Frank, he done go the fust of the wah. I done know jus’ what he is, but he is right smaht, and he had orders from Wash- ington, fust thing. We done know if hi soldier or what, but he’s been in seben places in France, and all them addresses are marked ‘ Private.’” comicbooks.com