Life, 1920-06-24 · page 13 of 41
Life — June 24, 1920 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Content:** The page contains two articles. "A French Invasion" discusses new French words entering English (questionnaire, reportage, etc.), lamenting their adoption. **The Cartoons:** The large illustration depicts "The Landing of the Pilgrims as the Movies Would Have It"—a comedic reimagining showing the Pilgrim landing as chaotic slapstick, with figures tumbling and children running amok, contrasting sharply with the historical dignified narrative. Below is a small illustration labeled "En Route: Lower Prices Coming (News Item)" showing a tortoise with a spiral shell, apparently satirizing slow economic improvement. **The Satire:** The main joke mocks both Hollywood's sensationalized historical dramatizations and early cinema's lowbrow entertainment values, suggesting filmmakers would trivialize the Pilgrims' serious arrival into comedy.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A French Invasion ORE than half a century ago when the British had reason to believe that Napoleon III was meditating an in- yasion of England, Tennyson rhymed a martial al to his countrymen with the refrain, “Form, riflemen, form!” Here in the United States to-day a patri- poct might well impiore the Minute to rally in defense of our language, nreatened with an invasion of French r In a recent review of a new American mystery story, in which an aged dealer in masks and costumes is assas- sinated, the critic tells us that the first chapter of the tale “pictures the murder of the old costumier.” Why costumier? Is not costumer a good and sufficient word? It is true that the British seem to »stumier to costumer for some in- reason, as they have lately taken a napkin a serviette—even go- far as to speak of serviette rings, a vile combination, abhorrent to all who love the English language for its own sake. ni] worse remains behind. Ina recent advertisement of the latest edition of one of the hest of American dictionaries a list is given of the new words included Among these new words are esca- hrisance, rafale and empennag ire not English, which never will he sh, and which have no rightful place in any lexicon of our tongue. Then there is questionnaire, which is in truth familiar in our mouths just now, in spite of the fact that it is an undesirable citizen of the vocabulary, since we have already a better word, interrogatory. Moreover, uestionnaire is to take out its papers, ught to Anglicize itself into question- 1s repertoire has become repertory. The writer of the advertisement of this new supplement to the old dictionary de- clares that the specimens he lists are “a suggestion of the recent growth of the lang One of these specimens is But there seems to be little ood that this French term for protective coloring” will long survive of the war. It is already be- infrequent, and it is destined carly death—like fin de siécle. EN ROUTE LOWER PRICES COMING (NEWS ITEM) RE FUER, THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS AS THE MOVIES WOULD HAVE IT The Last Word A P an organization meeting of the women voters in a western city one of their orators was pleading for united action “We must elect one of our number whom all the rest will follow,” she proclaimed. Now, into this meeting a mere man had ned entrance. His pl. was to heckle the speakers and cause any yreements that he might he able to. “T'd like to see any woman in the bunch that you'd all follow,” he spoke up, as the above statement was made. The woman orator looked around the hall, perceived the speaker, and favored him with her most withering glance. “T'd like to see any woman in the bunch you wouldn't follow!" she retorted. There was no more heckling of the speakers that evening. comicbooks.com