dual personalities

Today is the birthday of Frank Gelett Burgess (January 30, 1866 – September 18, 1951) who was an artist, art critic, poet, author and humorist.

I know Gelett Burgess mainly for Goops and How to Be Them, which was a book we loved as children. My children, in turn, loved it.

The Goops books were originally published between 1900 and 1950. The characters debuted, conceptually, in the illustrations of Burgess’ publication The Lark, in the late 19th century. The Goops also appeared in panels in the popular monthly children’s publication St. Nicholas, as early as 1898.

We knew this poem by heart:

The Goops, they lick their fingers,

and the Goops, they lick their knives;

They spill their broth on the tablecloth,

Oh, they lead disgusting lives!

We loved to emphasize the word disgusting. In fact I recited it to the wee babes only last weekend! (Yes, even they can act like goops at the table.)

Since the publication in 1900 of the original Goops book, Goops and How to Be Them, the series has come to be seen as the “quintessential series on teaching children the importance of manners and polite behavior.”

When you are playing with the girls,

you must not pull their pretty curls;

if you are gentle when you play,

you will be glad of it some day!

“Politically incorrect,” but correct nonetheless.

Can you spot the goop in this picture taken at Lottie’s preschool?

Join me in toasting old Gelett Burgess tonight! But watch your manners!

TIDINESS

Little scraps of paper,

Little crumbs of food,

Make a room untidy,

Everywhere they’re, strewed.

Do you sharpen pencils,

Ever, on the floor?

What becomes of orange- peels

And your apple-core?

Can you blame your mother

If she looks severe.

When she says, “It looks to me

As if the Goops were here”?

Indeed, who can blame your mother when she looks severe?