Epilogue

Abstract

The new humor of the early twentieth century concerned itself with the plight of the underclasses particularly of new immigrants and their families. Ethnic, family, and school acts focused on subjects of domestic urban life, verbal and physical misunderstandings, conflicts between ethnic groups vying for survival, the disparity between rich and poor, and the social climbing of the new middle class. In Brett Page’s 1915 book, Writing for Vaudeville, he quotes a satirical stump speech in which a “German Senator” lays out the issues of the day:

And when [the Statue of Liberty] stands there now, looking on the country the way it is and what she has to stand for, I tell you tears and tears must drop from her eyes. Well, to prove it—look at the ocean she filled up. And no wonder she’s crying. Read the nuisance papers. See what is going on. Look at what the country owes…Nobody knows what we owe it for; and nobody ever sees what we have got for it; and if you go to Washington, the Capsule of the United States, and ask them, THEY don’t even know THEMSELVES.¹