Life, 1919-03-13 · page 27 of 42
Life — March 13, 1919 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical cartoon about military officers' excessive baggage during WWI deployment to France. The top comic strip shows an officer who greedily collects personal items ("religiously took everything everybody told him to"), loads them into an enormous cart, loses items en route, and is finally ordered to reduce his baggage to 35 pounds for return to America—a humorous comment on military inefficiency and overconsumption. The letter below parodies this theme, presenting a complaint from "the Powers That Be" about receiving a six-and-a-half-pound infant with no baggage. The joke uses the baby as a metaphor—likely referring to how soldiers or dependents arrived unprepared, requiring resources and causing unexpected expense to their hosts. It satirizes how military personnel were often underprepared despite taking excessive personal belongings, and the financial burden they placed on society.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE OFFICER WHO RELIGIOUSLY TOOK EVERY THING EVERY BODY ANE HE IS THEN ORDERED TOCUTDOWNHIS <2 BAGGAGE TO 35 |bs. A Letter of Protest vite Powers Tuat Be, rue, Corner of Milky Way. ENTLEME We are in receipt of a six-and-one-half-pound infant forwarded to us from your establish- ment, and beg to report that same has arrived in good condition. We regret WE LIVE AND LEARN to state, however, that he came without any baggage, and in such a helpless state that we shall be compelled to fur- nish him with board and lodging and necessary covering for a number of years to come. He appears to have a very uneven disposition, and has aquired the unfor- tunate habit of attracting to our home TOLD HIM TO- LEAVES FOR FRANCE Put rrON THE certain relatives who, before his arrival, made our life exceedingly pleasant by their absence. He cries for food continually, and as food, at the present time, is very high, we can look ahead and see that he is going to be a source of continuous ex- pense to us. be that he is not able to talk, He man- His one merit appears to comicbooks.com