All This, and WWI

I haven't posted any World War I stuff for Stealback Saturday in quite a while -- largely because the material I have on hand isn't a propos until next November -- but Mike Peterson posted some 100-year-old New Year's editorial cartoons yesterday. He included this one by Carey Orr (then drawing for the Nashville Tennessean, and soon to move to the Chicago Tribune's front page for many years):

"And We All Wanted It to Be a Girl"

I hope I've correctly addressed the link above so you can check out all the other New Year's 1916 cartoons Mike posted. Other times when I've tried linking to him, I've ended up having linked to his "Comic Strip of the Day" site generally -- which is always a good read, anyway.

In yesterday's post, Mike links to Terry Beattie's display of cartoons from a pamphlet urging readers to purchase war bonds. Since the appeal is for the "Third Liberty Loan," I assume that the cartoons are drawn well after U.S. entry into the war in 1917, but I'd like to include this Frederick Opper cartoon anyway:

The center and right characters are Paul von Hindenburg and Kaiser Wilhelm. Somehow, I had thought that the guy on the left -- and countless cartoons and TV/movie representations of men just like him -- were a stereotype that grew out of World War II; but I see that he is identified here as Crown Prince Wilhelm. The Crown Prince would still figure in the rise of Hitler, which is probably where my mistake comes from -- that, and the fact that WWII continues to have a much greater cultural impact than the original WW on this side of the pond...

...Even if World War I was seen as the greatest threat to the world of all time as it was happening, as evidenced by this Sid Chapin contribution to the booklet.

To close this post, let's return to the first week of 1916. With suspicion of Islam at a heightened frenzy today, here's an example by William H. Walker for Life magazine ("That Will Please Him," January 6, 1916) of how our fear of fifth columnists has a long, long pedigree:

The letter reads: "Somewhere, U.S.A.
Majesty,
Things are going well over here. Three munitions (3) factories blown up
this week and bombs placed on several ships.
Obediently Your Lieut. X.Y.Z."