Life, 1919-02-27 · page 24 of 38
Life — February 27, 1919 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This WWI-era page celebrates American soldiers as modern heroes through multiple pieces: **"Victory" poem** (top left): A patriotic prayer thanking God for military victory, attributed to Clinton Scollard, emphasizing collective good rather than individual power. **"The Heroic Era" essay**: Argues that ordinary working-class men—ribbon clerks, icemen, bootblacks—become heroes through service in France. It romanticizes soldiers enduring hardship ("finger on the trigger") and dying for abstract ideals of "Liberty and Duty." References to classical heroes (Achilles, Horatius) elevate these common laborers. **Naval portrait**: Shows an admiral in formal military dress, captioned as "after Lemuel Abbott," establishing gravitas through art history reference. **Bottom jokes**: Satirize civilian concerns during wartime—a soldier asking about learning French while fighting, and a wealthy man's "Prohibition outlook" being expensive because he's built a wine cellar addition. This mocks profiteering and disconnection from soldiers' sacrifice. **"Recipe for a Hero"**: Summarizes the essay's message: ordinary Americans plus duty equals heroism under enemy fire. The page overall glorifies working-class sacrifice while subtly criticizing civilian indulgence.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
332 Victory Urs Thine altars, Have we the saci Lord, al wine out- poured ; And Thou, by land and s Hast granted unto us the Victory From Thee we crave no power In this exalted and triumphant hour, Only the common good Of all mankind in righteous brother- hood, Clinton Scotlard. The Heroic Era VERY ative. age is dull io the unimagin- All days are gray to the gray in thought. No hero is a hero to his valet, because valets were made that way. But to those whose minds are dyed with the emotion of the sublime and iving apparatus cannot be the repetition of the tales whose ree dulled by from Over There of the feats of courage of Our Boys, the Hero’ , and the days of Hercules prodigious endurance and Homeric is this ag and Horatius are these days. What a banal word! But visualize the ribbon clerk who sat silent on a certain bitter night Heroes in that tree last winter without a cup of coffee, his finger on the trigger of his gun and his eye. weary with fatigue, horing the dark for a crawling enemy Visualize the iceman who served you every morning going “over the top” to battle and die for a thing not seen of the eyes and not touched of the hand an ideal of Liberty and Duty. And bootblack, sweaty and slimy and buggy, maybe, who, sticks to your “COME OUT AND PLAY” LIFE'S GALLERY OF OLD MASTERS IV AN ADMIRAL OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY (AFTER LEMUEL ABBOTT) his gun with the hosanna, “Long live America!” on his lips, knowing that that is his final breath and his final word. Hats off to them—to both our quick and our dead. Agamemnon, Achilles and Horatius are with us in khaki—or there deep in the mud of France make love in “Yes, but I didn’t guage.” old fellow, did you learn to ench?" learn the lan Comes High “THIS Prohibition outlook is a trifle expensive.” “How so?” “Why, I've just had to build an addi- tion to my wine cellar.” Recipe for a Hero N average American soldier. One opportunity to serve. Equal parts of danger and courage. \ sense of duty. \ hot enemy fire.