Life — May 19, 1927 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This is an illustration captioned "Scheherazade (finishing her Bed-Time Story): and that, dear kiddies, is how Peter Rabbit came to be known as the father of his country." The image depicts an ornate Arabian interior with multiple figures lounging on cushions beneath arched columns. It's a humorous mashup of two cultural references: Scheherazade, the storyteller from *One Thousand and One Nights*, finishing a bedtime tale to children. However, the joke conflates this with American folklore by claiming Peter Rabbit (the Beatrix Potter character) became "the father of his country"—a title reserved for George Washington. The satire appears to mock either the blending of children's literature with American mythology, or perhaps satirizes how bedtime stories shape national identity. Without additional context, the precise political target remains unclear, though it likely comments on American cultural pretensions or education practices circa 1910.