Life, 1904-08-04 · page 15 of 36
Life — August 4, 1904 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes **turn-of-the-century social pretension and ennui**—the fashionable complaint that modern life is exhausting and morally corrupt compared to "better" historical periods. The poem (credited to E.N. Clark) uses escalating absurdity: the speaker wishes he'd lived in Caesar's Rome, Methuselah's era, primitive times, or even as tree-dwelling primates—each supposedly simpler and happier than the present. The repeated refrain "everybody's so bloomin' blasé" is the joke: the speaker's own complaints exemplify the very jaded attitude he's criticizing. The accompanying illustrations show each fantasized era, with captions like "But art was their hobby" and "When they sat in the trees." **The satire targets**: wealthy Americans nostalgic for imagined golden ages while ignoring actual modern problems (rent, gas bills, social pressure). It mocks the pose of world-weary sophistication—treating perpetual discontent as fashionable rather than genuine.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“ But art was their hobby.” I wish I had lived during Casar’s reign, Or when Rameses did—I wouldn't complain ; There were no millionaires, no trusts, ‘* bulls” or ‘*bears,” But art was their “ hobby,” so history declares, In that good old day when Carsar held sway, But now everybody's so bloomin’ blasé. AN \ x “When a man at two hundred was merely a kid.” I wish I had lived when Methuselah did, When a man at two hundred was merely a kid; When they lived easy lives and had dozens of wives, And it wasn't bad form if they ate with their knives. If you did it to-day folks would call you a jay, For everybody's so bloomin’ blasé. I wish I had lived in the primitive ages, When gas bills and rent dido’t take a man's wages ; And they didn’t know style, for it wasn't worth while, As they wore but a fig leaf (and sometimes a smile) ; ‘A more simple way than we have to-day, ‘When everybody's so bloomin’ blasé, * As they wore but a fig leaf.” I wish I had lived in the good old days, Before men lost all their monkey ways; ‘When they sat in the trees and scratched for fleas, And wore no trousers to bag at the knees, A much better way than we have to-day, When everybody's so bloomin’ blasé, E. N. Clark, “ When they sat in the trees.”