Life, 1920-05-13 · page 31 of 52
Life — May 13, 1920 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece mocks bureaucratic inefficiency in post-WWI demobilization. The sketch depicts a discharged soldier, Private Fizzle, stranded in the military 30 years later because his discharge paperwork was lost on a bureaucrat's desk in 1920. The joke: two clerks in the War Department prioritize avoiding work over processing the final soldier's discharge. They deliberately leave his paperwork incomplete to maintain their jobs. The lost document literally becomes the "symbol of our 'carry over' rule"—an absurdist commentary on how government red tape and self-serving bureaucrats can trap citizens in limbo indefinitely. The bottom cartoon, "Strange Hallucination of an Ex-Toper," appears unrelated—showing a man seeing a camel at the zoo, likely satirizing alcohol-induced delusions. The satire targets both military bureaucratic absurdity and the broader post-war chaos of demobilization.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE BAGGAGE MAN GOT THE TAGS MIXED The Last Man Out A Post-War Drama of the A. E. F (Scene 1. Office of the Adjutant-General, Washington, D. C.) . 3S (a clerk, writing industriously) : filling out illuminated parchment discharge documents for the last hundred men of the A. E. F, to be demobilized. fat At last! I have reached the hun- dredth—Private Fizzle, No. 3046192... . Jens (another clerk): Here! What © you doing? Don't violate rules! Boccs: What do you mean? Jenxs: If you make out that discharge you will have absolutely no work to carry over to to-morrow! Boccs: Oh! What a narrow escape! I jorgot that was our first commandment Thank you, Harry, for saving my govern- mental existence. Oh! Oh! I must get out into the air. the shock come (They exit. The discharge remains upon the desk. From the flies fil- | ters a fine dust which settles softly upon This denotes the passage of much Curtain (Scene 2. The parade ground at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. Thirty years later.) Boces (the first clerk): Whata peaceful scene. Once, in 1920, I think, I was here. Nothing has changed. Jenks (the second clerk): Who is the graybeard in the private’s uniform that I see approaching us? Tue Graysearp: Private Fizzle, N 3046192, at your service, sirs. (Salutes. Boces: What! Still in the army? Fizzte: Alas, yes. Since 1922 I have been waiting for my honorable discharge. As yet, it has not come. Being under de- mobilization orders, my pay has been stopped for thirty years and five months. (Overcome with thought, he turns aside.) Boces: Harry, my boy, how sad. His discharge paper has evidently become the symbol of our “carry over” rule and a AT THE ZOO STRANGE HALLUCINATION OF AN EX-TOPER comicbooks.com