Life, 1923-06-28 · page 23 of 37
Life — June 28, 1923 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Upper section:** A humorous domestic anecdote by L. Blanche Simpson about her husband's attempt to romantically recreate a literary moment. He orders bouillabaisse (the famous French stew referenced in Thackeray's writing) at a Marseille café, attempting sophistication with French phrases ("sang-froid"). The joke: the elaborate dish makes him physically ill, undermining his pretensions. The satire gently mocks American tourists' attempts at Continental sophistication. **Lower section & cartoon:** A brief political jab at Commissioner Hirshfield of New York, who claimed American history textbooks contained pro-British propaganda and demanded rewrites. Life sarcastically agrees, suggesting America shouldn't have permitted British settlement—an absurdist response implying Hirshfield's complaint is equally ridiculous. **The cartoon exchange** between editor and artist pokes fun at the editorial process itself, suggesting this "joke" about British propaganda is ancient ("came out first" around 1840).
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE My Husband Says HAT Thackeray certainly immor- talized Becky Sharp and Bouilla- baisse. And he says that every man who wears a low collar, and eats with ) his pen, wants to try that famous ‘e. stew, once. It’s on the menu at Le Vieux Fromage, a little café in town where we sometimes dine. But the waiter says it doesn’t pay to serve less than ten orders at once; and you have to order a week in ad- vance, because it takes so long to collect the things that are in it. And he says it is hard to find ten men sitting in a row who know what Bouillabaisse is. And it would be harder to get them to eat it if they did. So he says there is really very little call for it. But one night when we were in Marseilles, my husband said he was filled with the spirit of adventure, only, And he was hungry. So we motored to a fascinating pink café, set high on a lovely cream-colored ledge, overlooking the beautiful blue Mediterranean. On the way out he quoted a lot from Thackeray, be- cause he wished to be in the proper frame of mind to commemorate him with a dish of Bouillabaisse, He said he would order with the utmost sang-froid. (He used a lot of words like that when we were away.) He put slices of bread in the green bowl, and poured thin tomato soup over them. When the’ slices of bread floated, I thought they looked like great, pale rafts. But when he put the other things in, they sank again. When he raised the cover of the yellow bowl, where the Bouillabaisse was, 1 turned away and looked out on the Mediterranean, and I thought it was perfectly stun- ning. .There were pieces of finnan haddie, and garlic, and fresh haddock and lovely sprays of herbs, and the cut- est little strips of smoked herring, and lobster, and every- thing. It was tinted in the most heavenly shade with saffron, and garnished with two red peppers, and the shell of the lobster, which wasn’t as red as the ones at home. My husband said he thought it was in mourning for something. But he said it was a wonderful stew, and they served a very generous order. He said the green bowl looked as large as the blue Mediterranean. He was awfully pale after dinner, and swore enthusias- tically at the taxi man, who seemed ever so pleased. I was glad he was, because I think the French are so apt to think Americans are cold. I wanted to make some for him after we came home, but he said: “My God! Have you ceased to love me?” And I thought maybe he didn’t care to have me try. So I didn’t. L. Blanche Simpson. Now for a Hirshfield Edition OMMISSIONER HIRSHFIELD of New York states that all standard text books on American his- tory are poisoned with pro-British propaganda, and urges that they be rewritten. They're a tricky race, those English. We should never have permitted them to settle this country in the first place. Editor: wHy pIDN’T YOU PUT THE PEOPLE IN THE COSTUME oF 1840? Artist: WHAT FoR? Editor: THAT's ABOUT THE TIME THIS JOKE CAME OUT FIRST. comicbooks.com