Life, 1919-02-13 · page 18 of 42
Life — February 13, 1919 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"The Farmerette" Poem:** This satirizes women war workers during WWI. The poem mocks the "farmerette"—women recruited for agricultural labor during the war—as ineffectual and vain. She loves talking about farming but "hates to soil the plow," scorns slackers, yet actually fails to raise crops. The joke: her real contribution was merely *existing* in her one-piece jumper, not actual productivity. It's gentle mockery of romanticized female patriotism versus practical competence. **Lower Cartoon:** Two German soldiers (identifiable by dialect: "ACH, FRITZ," "VORSE AS DOT, HANS") lament democracy's destruction of hierarchy. Previously, they had superiors to respect and inferiors to dominate. Now, they joke bitterly, they can only look down on their wives. The satire targets German militarism and rigid class structure while suggesting American democracy's leveling effect—presented as both progress and emasculation depending on perspective. **"Post-Bellum Suggestions":** Satirizes officers' wives monetizing military insignia and equipment for fashion accessories and household goods—absurdist humor about peacetime materialism replacing martial purpose.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
246 The Farmerette B OLD the gentle farmerette, The well-known war to win, Arrayed like Solomon, and yet Toils not, nor does she spin not because she shirks the toil. Dear, no! She will avow That she just loves to plow the soil, But hates to soil the plow: Her martial conversation leans To gardens, in a row She grows quite warlike talking beans, To make the beanstalk grow. She scorns the slackers, those who shirk, For labor teaches thrift, And does not shift her cight hours’ work, But works her eight-hour shift She proudly claims her labors bore The fruits of work well done. Her one-piece jumper won that war, Because she wore that one. No failure she, we all agree, In spite of all the chaff. She might not raise the crops, but she Could always raise a laugh. CAPTAIN, SIS HAS BEEN FININ’ AN ENTANGLEMENT ON THAT DIVAN Sam S. Stinson, cers HE gold bars of a second ficutenant make excellent lingérie pins for wives and sweet- Post-Bellum Suggestions for Army | Of hearts. Field glasses can be used effectively in back of the twelfth row at the theatre. Military trousers may be worn for golf. Commissions, when framed and hung on the wall, look like Harvard diplomas The black and gold cords on service hats can be used with telling effect in milady’s coiffure Sam Brown belts, when disassembled, can be used for razor strops. Woolen roll puttees can be cut up and nailed down for weather strips Silver cagles worn by colonels can pass for brooches on any woman's waist. Spurs can be used, after short prac tice, for cancelling cheques or maki hamburg steak. Any schoolboy can strap his text- books in an officer's belt. “ACH, FRITZ, DIS DEMOCRACY ISS TERRIBLE, VE HAF NOW NO VUN TO LOOK UP 70.” An officer’s whistle makes a neat gift “VORSE AS DOT, HANS, VE HAF NOD ANYVUN TO LOOK DOWN ON EXCEPT OUR VIFES.” for your favorite postman. "