Life, 1914-06-25 · page 15 of 45
Life — June 25, 1914 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"Sweet Alice, 1914"** satirizes the "New Woman" of 1914—specifically, the transformation of a modest girl into a modern actress/performer. The piece mocks contemporary fashion trends (purple-tinted curls, "trouserette gown," cigarette cases on chains, automobiles) and the bohemian lifestyle associated with stage women. The reference to "Ben Bolt" (a sentimental 19th-century song) emphasizes how unrecognizable modern women have become—the implication being satirical criticism of women's changing social roles and appearance. **"Ready to Wear"** (with apologies to William Allen Butler, author of "Nothing to Wear") critiques cheap, mass-produced clothing marketed to women. The poem's joke: ready-made garments advertise convenience but require extensive repairs, alterations, and needlework—negating the promised time-savings. It satirizes both shoddy manufacturing and the exploitation of women's unpaid domestic labor. The "descendants of Jacob" reference implies Jewish immigrant garment manufacturers. Both pieces express ambivalent anxiety about women's modernization and commercialization in early 1910s America.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
i Ps “ai RSE Sweet Alice, 1914 Oo". don’t you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt, when her hair was a beautiful brown? You never in*the world would know her as she looks to-day, with a cane and a trouserette gown. Her Paris-made curls are the new purple tint; when I called I could scarce trust my eyes, for she wore a little night-cap, the latest Paris hint with rosebuds and pink ribbon ties. Sweet Alice is now on the stage, Ben Bolt; she began at the end of the row. She smiled with delight at the public cach night, and now she’s the hit of the show. She dances a tango that sets them a-whirl, with a dip and a kick and a glide. You'd never believe ‘twas the same little girl that the song wrongly stated had died. She's a cigarette case on the end of a chain, where the old-fashioned ones wore a fan; has a flat and a maid and a Pomeranian pup; her motor is olive and tan. And down at the theatre place where she plays, her pictures are hung by the score, and they’ve fitted a slab with about a thousand electric lights and sweet Alice’s name up over the door. Kate Masterson. Heroic Youth: MAY 1 HAVE THE PLEASURE OF THIS DANCE? MAIL, PRITANNIA AND CoLUMnLA! Ready to Wear (With Apologies to William Allen Butler.) “READY to Wear! Put them on and walk out! For rich or for poor, for the slim and the stont, The latest in styles and the fit guaranteed; Your troubles are ended—just buy what you need.” Ready to Wear—but you mustn’t complain If buttons are dropping about you like rain; Just sew them all on, reinforce all the tapes, Then take up the hems and remodel the shapes. Ready to wear—see this elegant waist; It’s florid? That's only a matter of taste; The stuffs rather cheap and the color may run, But think what it saved you to find it all done! If seams are awry or the collar has frayed, Your maid can repair it—you haven't a maid? Oh, well, it is nothing, a stitch here and there. What women would do without Ready te Wear! s 8 8 Step up to my room, where the garments are spread, And watch me at work with my needle and thread, Refitting, repairing, redraping and fold, Adjusting my soul to a ready-made mold From daylight till darkness, and say if you dar Descendants of Jacob, they're Rea - Juliet Wilbor Tompkins. comichooks.