Life, 1918-12-26 · page 9 of 35
Life — December 26, 1918 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two satirical pieces from WWI-era Life magazine: **"The Jester"** (top): A poem by Mabel Houghton Collyer urging a court jester to return and use humor to lift wartime gloom. It references the king being "dead" and suggests laughter as relief from war's melancholy—likely satirizing how Americans need entertainment distraction during the conflict. **"It Will Seem Like the Millennium"** (bottom): A humorous list of post-war peace conditions (sugar availability, magazine stories resuming, etc.). The accompanying illustration shows two figures by a fireplace, with a caption about miscommunication regarding a decision change—appears to be domestic comedy contrasting trivial home concerns with grand war-ending aspirations. Both pieces use humor to process WWI anxiety through satire of American daily life and desires for normalcy.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘LIFE: The Jester OME back, you old court jester, With cap and bells of yore. Those rabid kings were sorry things For which to go to war! But since we have uncrowned them And sent them on their way, Spring from the gloom that shrouds your tomb, And teach us how to play! Set free your vials of laughter— Have done with sobs and sighs; The melancholy days have passed. The sun is+in the skies. Take you the crown the king dropped down, And fit it to your brow A reign of mirth will suit the earth Right merrily just now! Come back, you old court jester, With all your merry mien. Revive Pierrot, and gaily show Fair Folly for your queen. Come, trip the light fantastic As blithely as of yore The king is dead! So reign instead, And flout the gods of war! Mabel Haughton Collyer. It Will Seem Like the Millennium AVJHEN the boys get back home, When all of them obtain work. When Germany is thoroughly re- rined, \When Russia comes to her senses. When the influenza is but a memory. When hot-headed _ trouble-brewers writing books and magazine arti- panese peril William) Hohenzollern has properly dealt with. When our Liberty Bonds have all heen paid for. When the paper shortage has been nthe zone mailing system is bolished. When we can have all the sugar we ant When the magazines quit publishing var stories When the word “camouflage” is fropped. “VM TERRIBLY WORRIED, I WROTE JACK IN MY LETTER TO FORGET When Teddy can find no fault with IMAT 1 HAD TOLD HIM I DIDN'T MEAN TO RECONSIDER MY DECISION NOT TO existing conditions CHANGE MY MIND, AND HE SEEMS TO HAVE MISUNDERSTOOD MF." comicbooks.com