Life, 1919-01-23 · page 32 of 42
Life — January 23, 1919 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate satirical pieces about post-WWI American life: **"When He Comes Back"** (top): A cartoon showing various people overwhelming a returning soldier with unsolicited commentary. The satire mocks how civilians—his sweetheart, brother, father, family cook—all presume to advise or judge the veteran despite having no combat experience. The father interrupts with irrelevant stories about the Civil War; the brother resents not serving; others make inappropriate comments about his appearance or the French. The humor lies in the obliviousness of non-combatants. **"The Inconsistent War"** (middle): Satirizes military procurement failures—the government spent a billion dollars before producing any airplanes, then had too many once the war ended, forcing them to scrap or sell them cheaply. The complaint that "the war should have waited" is intentionally absurd, blaming the war's inconvenient timing rather than military mismanagement. **"Fear of Famine"** (bottom): A newspaper editor in an asylum went mad worrying the Peace Conference would end before the off-season, leaving him without news to publish—satirizing journalists' self-interested anxiety about losing coverage opportunities.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIP E? When He Comes Back What Friends, Relatives, etc., Have to Say W Almost Any Captain Returns from France IS SWEETHEART: Oh, Jim, I’m so happy, and you never ought to wear anything but a uniform all your life. You certainly do look grand I think they should have made you a major-general His Brotuer (who has been stuck in a trai camp on this side for the duration of the w Huh, just Iuck—that’s all it is. I suppose I have all the brains in the f. His Dap (who is a Civ doubt it was a fierce fight at Chateau- but let me tell you what happened to us at the Battle of Gettysburg. I His Sweerneart’s Best Girt Fre Yes; he looks fine, but you ought to see my lieutenant. His Sweerneart’: xt Best Gree Frien: I'd ask him about the French girls. He looks too handsome not to have had an affair of the heart over there. His Pat (who was put in a deferred classifica- tion for something or other): Now you see, Jim, I would have been in the army if. The rea- son I haven't got on a uniform is———. I would have been in the fighting, but———. Tue Fasiry Cook: Now, Mr. Jim, you sit down and eat your head off. I’m going to get you five meals a day till you get fed up. You look as though you'd had enough to eat, but you just can’t have had enough. Anyhow, it will do you good to take it easy, and put a lot of first-class victuals into you. WHAT WILLIE HOPES WILL HA MIS DAD COMES HOME The Inconstant War T will no doubt be a great consolation to many patriotic people to know that when the war ended we were actu- ally beginning to get such a stock of airplanes on hand that it has since then been a matter of great inconvenience to break them up and throw them on the scrap-heap, or to get rid of them by selling them off uction at a fraction of what they cost. But the expense, of course, is a small matter The difficulty was with the war, and not with us. If we spent nearly one billion dollars before we succeeded in pro- ducing any airplanes at all, and then, when we finally got them, had to throw do not blame Mr. Baker. The war should have waited for us to catch up, in the first place, and should then not have stopped so suddenly Fear of Famine ISITOR IN ASYLUM: Who is that intellectual- looking giant in the padded cell? ATTENDANT: A newspaper editor. He worried himself crazy by imagining the Peace Conference would end before the hall season opened, and that, in the interval, he wouldn't be able to find cnough news to fill his paper. His Mornex: - is “V’M SORRY, MRS. CLANCY, BUT I'LL HAVE TO CHARGE YE SIXTY CENTS A POUND FOR TURKEY.” “WHAT THE DIVIL DO 1 CARE? MY BOY DINN THE WAR, AN’ HE FANCIES UT.” HOME FROM