Life, 1911-07-13 · page 3 of 44
Life — July 13, 1911 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising** (Columbia Records Grafonola and Egyptian Deities cigarettes), with a satirical poem occupying the left column. "The Universal Parody" mocks literary parody itself. The poem describes a "canny miller" who wrote a parody about a bridge and the Khayam (likely Omar Khayyam, the Persian poet). When criticized for unoriginality—that parodies are common—he responds by writing another parody *about* parodies, joking that "a parody on anything" could substitute for any content. The satire targets the prevalence of parody in contemporary literature, suggesting it had become so ubiquitous and lazy that one could parody the concept of parody itself. It's a meta-joke about artistic exhaustion.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
rag” backs ot een.” ie pev packs Covi edge 38 Keoald on receipt of price. ‘Bend for Catalog The Universal Parody ERE once hved a canny miller By the bonny banks 0° Dee, And he longed for fame and siller, So: heswrote avparoilss He sat him down upon a bridge, Past which wet water swam, And parodied the Rubaiyat Of Mister O, Khayyam To a magazine he sent it And a reader shricked a shriek, In a tone that showed he meant “That makes fifty-two this w Then he wrote him most politely “Sir: We do not care a —— For any further parodies Of Mister O. Khayyam.” “We have parodies most solemn, We have parodies most sad; We could fill up every column, Substitute for every ad A parody on anything, From a harelip to a ham, That some versifier’s written After Mister O. Khayyam.” When the canny miller read this Then a bitter smile smiled he. “It is very plain,” he said, “ this Is induced by jealous So, by way of consolation, He imbibed an extra dram And parodied another verse From Mister O. Khayyam. The Utmost in Cigarettes They cost more to make but when. you smoke m you know why~ Cork Tips or Plain Grafonola “Favorite"50 There Are Others, Too Let a member of Parliament rise and insist that two and two make four Im- mediately all the members turn their backs upon him and ignore him as a mere preacher; but by putting the same proposition in a more complicated fori he can get Parliament's respectful “On no account, gentlemen, Il T ever be persuaded to or consent to such a radi- crous proposition as that two and two might, by any conceivable Double-Disc Records bearing this musical-note trade mark, will play perfectly on your machine. Columbia Records aresuperior in quality of Tone Columbia Records are superior in quality of Recording Process Columbia Records are superior in quality of Duplicating Process Columbia Records are superior in quality of . Material Columbia Records are superior in quality of Endurance Columbia Phonograph Co. Gen‘! 270 Tribune Building, N: ‘ London: Earlsfield, S, of the Talking.ma s. be made to produce the wholly ical result—nay, [ may say the mc s result!—of five. Against repo we can safely pledge our widespread empir “Ah, a profound reasoner!" agree the + s * This is the sort of man for us! . Marne, is a prohibition town, Mayor ordered the saloo closed dircetly after the great fire —Charleston News and Courier. comicbooks.com