Puck's Midsummer Medley

A summer number, laid out as a medley of vignettes rather than a single image. At the center, a young woman in a pale gown sits at a writing desk by the shore, composing a letter to her beau in the city, the verse (by Edwin L. Sabin) asking when he will come down. Around her, scenes of the season circle the page: bathers at the surf, flirtations at the resort, a couple in an early automobile, idlers on a porch. Samuel Ehrhart draws each in loose, sunlit color and links them with curling ribbon scrolls. PUCK'S MIDSUMMER MEDLEY is captioned below. The scattered format suited a mid-August issue with no holiday to anchor it, just the loose comedy of American leisure observed from a dozen angles at once.