Life, 1914-06-18 · page 16 of 44
Life — June 18, 1914 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece mocks contemporary dance crazes (circa 1910s-20s, likely the Tango) by presenting them as an ancient Egyptian royal proclamation. The humor works through **anachronistic comparison**: King Rhampsinit III supposedly forbids "the dance the Smart Set has of late so affected," mirroring a modern monarch's alleged similar edict. The satire targets multiple subjects: 1. **Upper-class hypocrisy**: The proclamation condemns dancing while revealing that the royal family itself participates—the king's wife hosts dance parties ("dansants"), their son dances with a young Greek woman. 2. **Moral panic over modern dance**: References to "shameless gyrations," "racy and rich" movements, and invented dance names like "Pyramid Plunge" and "Sphinx Slitherette" mock exaggerated concerns about dance's moral dangers. 3. **Social pretension**: The "Smart Set" adopts fashions that authorities officially condemn, yet society's most respectable members participate anyway. The Egyptian framing adds absurdist distance, allowing satirists to critique contemporary prudishness and elite inconsistency without direct confrontation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
*LIFE: Down with the Dance! (Being a literal translation of a proclama- tion of King Rhampsinit IIT of ancient Egypt, curiously duplicated, as our readers will re- member, by an illustrious monarch of our own day.) T° the people of Egypt—Wuereas, by the grace Of the gods who aforetime established our race Are we set o’er this nation, We now make proclamation That the dance the Smart Set has of late so affected Has been tried by Ourselves and is hereby rejected! Be ye warned, then, young maids And gay rollicking blades; Ye, too, sportive mammas And ye spring-heeled papas. The dance is forbidden! So heed our decree! He who breaks it will not merely forfeit a V, Or for thirty hot days on the brick-making gang go. The fate of the wretch who adventures this Tancot Shall be death! We have said it! With the shades shall he tread it— This measure which brings us such shame and discredit! It has banished decorum from camp and from court ; The staidest of counsellors fall for the sport; It has captured the temples, the very priests dance it And syncopate prayers while they recklessly prance it; While mothers of families, fifty and fat, Pay a talent a lesson, and gladly at that, For gyrations so shameless They here shall be nameless For the sake of the dames who have cast off propriety. These antics have tainted the best of society. Our spouse has e’en given thés dansants, at which The pace (so we're told) has been racy and rich, And our son, but last week, With a lissom young Greek, (She is cautioned hereby) did some figures so frisky That even the blaséest voted them risky. Such steps (we adjure you their names to forget) As the “ Pyramid Plunge” and the “ Sphinx Slitherette”.