Life, 1908-09-17 · page 16 of 24
Life — September 17, 1908 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes American tourists in Paris through two pieces: **"To Peggy, In Paris"** is a mock-heroic poem listing clichéd Parisian activities—flirting, shopping at Bon Marché, café culture, automobiling, opera-going—that expatriate Americans supposedly pursue. The repetitive structure parodies romantic French poetry while suggesting tourists engage in shallow, exhausting consumerism rather than genuine cultural experience. The illustrations show a woman frantically busy, ultimately falling asleep, mocking the frantic tourist lifestyle. **"Fads"** explains that nations maintain prestige by constantly creating new fashions. It defines a fad as a "friendly visitor" you discard after brief use—a mechanical toy wound up and abandoned. The piece notes America proudly imports fads from Europe (especially England and France) and cycles through them (roller skating, bicycles, ping-pong, "investigating," now "economy"). The humor lies in recognizing Americans' earnest adoption of passing trends as evidence of national vitality rather than superficiality. Both pieces mock American aspirational consumption and trend-chasing.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
To Peggy, In Paris (With apologies to the author of “ Lodore.’*) © Matin P® S tipping and tripping and citronade sipping. And diabolo playing and Champs-Elyséesing And guardedly flirting and Directoire skirting, Cajoling, condoling, and filet of soling, And riding astriding and Baedeker guidi And picture post-carding and.Grand Boulevarding. Arraying, delaying, and café-au-laiting, And little lamb-chopping and Bon Marcl And yellow romancing—Daudet i And Bagatelle Clubbing and raspberry é shopping, ancing— shrubbing, And thé camomilleing and automobiling, And lemon-juice banting—her hips are so slanting— And Pré Catalaning and—Peggy, you're yawning! L’Apres-midi Pege's prinking and winking and créme-de-menthe drinking, And limousine touring and pink manicuring, And afternoon teas-ing and broidered chemising, And high pony-carting and strawberry tarting, And buying white netting and black paillette jetting, And curly back-hairing and chocolate éclairing. Absurdly high-heeling and Arménonvilling, And ices devouring and cab-by-the-hourin; And partners enlisting for endless bridge-whisting, And Marie Crozeting and Rue de la Paix-in; And robes et manteauing and Pare de Monceauing. And recklessly charging and Morgan and Harjin And openwork hosing, and—Peggy, you're dozing ! Le Soir Pegg’s spreeing and feeing and compote-de-fruitsi: And racy Rat Morting, and wildly encoring, And slyly mancuvering and salty hors d’euvring, And Folies-Bergéring and devil-may-caring, INSPIRATION SS Bra AoDAm s — “ JUMPIN’ SNAKES! THIS SETTLES IT, I'LL SWEAR OFF AT ONCE.” And clair-de-la-luning and pouding de pruneing. And Francois Coppéeing and Théatre Frangaisi She's always concurring and Ambassadeuring, And small oyster-crabbing and taxicab-cabbing, And prancing and glancing and “ Faute des Roses’ dancing, And Opéra-Comiquing and double béziquing. And lazily dining—the starch foods declining— And chicken croquetting and gol:l cigarettin; And sowing and reaping, and—Peggy, you're sleeping! How did you sleep? Francis W. Crowninshield, I ‘tee Gurst: Splendid! The bed may be awful, and the general conditions all wrong, but it never makes any difference to me—I always sleep like a log. Fads OME countries are fagless. Therefore they s fogeyiam, and we rarely bear:of them: again; It is only by constantly creating new fads that any country can hope to hold its own. This is why, among the nations of the earth, we are so proud and happy and pre-eminent F; are either domestic or imported. The imported fads are in the greatest demand. Most of our fads come from England and France. A few— like the kindergarten—are from Germany. What is a fad? The answer is not so ea but let us try A fad is a friendly visitor that we ask in, hug to our bosoms, give the best room in the house, and then kick out of the hack door. Or, a fad is a mechanical toy with an appearance of useful- ness, that we wind up once, and then throw away the key If it were not for our fads we would not be the serious people that we are. But in taking them up and dropping them we have a permanent occupation, Once we had a roller skating fad, a bicycle fad and a ping- pong fad. This was succeeded by the investigating fad, the most amusing of all, not only because it furnished more fun, but was shorter, and brevity is always the soul of wit. We now have the economy fad. It is instructive, and has the charm of novelty. into old y ey ILLET says he's saving up for a rainy day. ife thinks he must be saving up for another ‘Comicbooks.com.