Life, 1915-04-01 · page 14 of 72
Life — April 1, 1915 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a poem rather than a political cartoon. It celebrates the Easter Parade—a real social tradition where New Yorkers, particularly fashionable women, displayed new spring clothing by walking down Fifth Avenue on Easter Sunday. The poem humorously captures the spectacle: elaborate bonnets and gowns, ribbons, silk, and brocade paraded "all down the long Avenue." The satirical edge appears in the final stanza, which notes that "Fashion will claim for its due / Homage—and won't be gainsaid," suggesting gentle mockery of fashion's power and vanity. The decorative border features silhouettes of people in period dress, emphasizing the parade's costume-like quality—the Easter Parade as public fashion theater rather than religious observance.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Easter Parade By CLINTON SCOLLARD Under the virginal blue, Neath the Aprilian glow, t All down the long Avenue See how the manikins go! | Bonnets with frill and with bow; Satin and silk and brocade! This is frivolity’s show; This is the Easter parade! Gowns of astonishing hue; Ribbons like blossoms a-blow; All down the long Avenue t Bright as a river they flow! | Banter of belle and of beau, Gossip of matron and maid; | After the season of snow, This is the Easter parade! Tell me, pray, what ts the clue? Why this display? Do you know? All down the long Avenue Row after shimmering row! If you're not there you're de trop; You are both stupid and staid, & Join then the jostle, for, lo, MP ah This is the Easter parade! Fashion will claim for its due Homage—and won't be gainsaid; All down the long Avenue This is the Easter parade! comichooks.