Life, 1919-04-03 · page 17 of 60
Life — April 3, 1919 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page uses Easter symbolism to reflect on World War I's aftermath. The top shows four stylized female heads spelling "LICE" (likely "LIFE," the magazine's title), with "Spring's Message" referencing renewal. The poem frames WWI as humanity's self-inflicted curse—"dragon-teeth of Hate" sown by ambition, requiring blood sacrifice to purify the world. The Easter lily represents hoped-for peace and resurrection. The lower illustration, captioned "Why the World Seems So Sad—So Bad," depicts fashionable women enjoying luxuries (mirror, flowers, jewelry) while appearing oblivious or indifferent. The satire suggests a disconnect: despite the war's enormous human cost and destruction, society's privileged classes continue their frivolous pleasures rather than grappling with the devastation or meaningfully embracing the peace that sacrifice supposedly purchased. This critiques wartime profiteering and the failure of post-war society to match noble wartime rhetoric with genuine transformation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SPRING'S MESSAGE Laster, 1919 MBITION sowed the dragon-tecth of Hate, A And patient Earth the dreadful harvest bore That grimly spread till all was desolate With bitter, poison-fruited weeds of War. “hat boon could make our sad World clean again, What purging miracle, but Sacrifice ! Our best we gave—warm blood of valiant men Ungrudging poured, hot tears of women’s eyes For sufferings untold. The Curse departs; Down sink the flames that scathed yet purified; And, from the sacred dust of noble hearts, Wreck of dear hopes, and kindly molds that hide Bedragyled pomps and crumbled thrones of kings, White Flower of Peace, the Easter Lily springs. WHY THE WORLD SEEMS so SAD— SO BAD comicbooks.com