Life, 1919-06-19 · page 7 of 42
Life — June 19, 1919 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a poem by Josephine Hemsley about a female ticket-chopper during wartime. The poem describes a woman working at a transit station who processes tickets while the men go to war. Despite her steady, unglamorous labor—cooking, sweeping, waiting—she maintains her post. The satire appears to celebrate this working-class woman's constancy: while soldiers come and go, she remains, her contributions rendered invisible by the "ways of Nature." The illustration shows a leisure scene with children and adults by water, contrasting sharply with the text's acknowledgment of wartime separation and women's essential but unrecognized domestic and service work. The piece reflects WWI-era attitudes toward female labor during male conscription.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
QHE was a ticket chopper, and every day passed her working hours the bowels of the earth, ating blue paper slips that fluttered oa glass box sie had released a man for war, nd now hether he came back or no, meant to stick, nd Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Brown, Sustling by, ked back, whispering: sixty a month I'd give her The Ticket Chopper And her keep, If she would come to cook, Or sweep, Or wait upon the door.” But the ticket chopper, hearing, Grinned derisively For she did not mean to cook, Or wash, or wait For anyone agai Iver. There was a guard, Big and blond, who clanged ONE OF THE BOYS The doors of the express, \nd one day smiled, The next day winked, And spoke And after that they walked out in the Park Now the erstwhile chopper cooks, Washe Yet draws no pay at all of Nature nd serubs, For the wa Arc immutable. And the man who went to war Has got his job Josephine Hemsley. comicbooks.com