Judge, 1912-05-04 · page 3 of 23
Judge — May 4, 1912 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features a poem by C. G. Garrison addressed to a "Little bird," accompanied by an illustration of a fashionable woman in a hat gazing at a bird perched on a branch. The satire contrasts the bird's carefree existence with the constraints of human—specifically women's—fashion and social convention. The poem envies the bird's freedom from worry, expense, and restrictive clothing ("Fashion's calls you need not heed," "no boots that pinch your feet"). The final stanza reveals the speaker's irony: despite admiring the bird's liberty, she chooses her "frills and laces" over genuine freedom, declaring satisfaction with her constrained life. This reflects early-20th-century anxieties about women's restrictive fashion and social roles, using gentle humor to comment on the disconnect between aspiring to freedom and accepting social conformity.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LINES TO A BIRD. What a happy life you lead, Why should not your notes be sweet, Little bird ; Little bird ? You are free from care indeed, You do not have bills to meet, Little bird ; Little bird. Garbed in raiment fit and trim Pipe your lightsome, merry lays. You can flit from limb to limb, Aren't you glad you wear no stays, Fashion's calls you need not heed, And no boots that pinch your feet, Little bird. Little bird > Though you're free as springtime’s air, Little bird, And of joy you have your share, Little bird. Still with you I'd not change places; I prefer my frills and laces. I'm quite satisfied. So there, Little bird. =C. G. Garreuen, comicbooks.com