Life, 1919-02-13 · page 15 of 42
Life — February 13, 1919 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains satirical commentary on post-WWI social issues. The "Victims" section critiques newspapers' focus on sensationalism (mental stimulants, literary dipsomaniacs) rather than serious problems affecting society's vulnerable. The "Discouraging" dialogue mocks American isolationism—a character dismisses European news as unprofitable compared to domestic profiteering. A cartoon depicts soldiers, likely referencing wartime experiences and their aftermath. The "Experience" section shows a domestic scene where a wife suggests using scraps as guest towels, and the husband quips about making them from cloth—satire on post-war economic hardship and domestic adjustment. The French kiss joke references American soldiers' romantic encounters abroad during WWI. Overall, the page satirizes American indifference to international affairs, profiteering, and economic struggles following the war.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LLP E- 243 Victims HY not a prohibition movement against mental st lants? Any man may become at any time a literary dipsomaniac, and nobody even protests. Why is not the deadly effect of reading the first magazine short story ever preached about? When we consider the thousands of victims of this evil, with the toils tightening about them every month, surely something ought to be done about it Many hopeless ones subsist almost entirely upoy news- paper editorials. They take them the first thing in the morning before breakfast, or even in bed before rising ePue MOVING PICTURE OF A WITH A SILK HAT AFTER A LIGHT SNOW-FALL Discouraging “T AM thinking of subscribing to your paper.” “Well, sir, you couldn't do better. It’s purely an American paper” “Th, too bad. IT want to learn something accurate about the European situation.” HE administration will find it more -profitable to the country to demobilize the profiteers than to try to get n indemnity out of Germany. She: YoU KISSED SOME OF THOSE FRENCH cIRLS—Now, DIDN'T You? - YES, DEAR—BUT ALWAYS IN FRENCH.” They will snatch at any editorial that comes along. Some even read those published in the New York Herald. Think of the countless wretches who, gradually growing more enfecbled in intellect, subsist almost solely on jokes and the daily humorous columns in newspapers. \Vhat can be done for them? How can they be saved? Experience “| WISH I knew what I could use these tiny pieces of cloth for,” mused the wife. “Make guest towels of them,” observed the husband. “PUT THAT IN YER PACK FER LUCK, MISTER, A: WAIT A MINUTE I KNOW WHERE THERE’S A BACK YARD FULL oF 'ga.” comicbooks.com