Lost in New York

By 1917 Puck was a different creature, owned by Hearst, near the end of its run, and dressed in the flat, poster-like modern style of the moment. This January cover throws a hard scarlet field behind a silvery globe, a boy shinnying up a pole toward the world while two harlequins in checkered motley crouch on either side, the old motto "What fools these mortals be!" curling along the base. It fronts a humorous piece by Stephen Leacock, "Lost in New York." Gone are the crowded chromolithograph panoramas of the Keppler years; the design is spare, graphic, almost a theater bill. Within a year the magazine would fold. This is Puck late in life, still stylish, and running out of time.