To 1908 also belongs _Punch's_ recognition of the advent of the Flapper, whose intrusions and insubordinations are happily hit off in "The New Autocrat":-- Ere hockey had shown her what sport meant, Ere yet she grew giddy and pert, She doted on dolls and deportment, And only came down for dessert: Her sisters would apprehend no sting From one so exceedingly green, Nor jibbed at the casual toasting Of bashful fifteen. Her tastes were not always considered; She seldom got more than her share; And parents, whenever the kid erred, Brought suitable pressure to bear! But gone is the rule of the hoar head; Old age is dismissed with a grunt; And youth's irrepressible forehead Has come to the front! O wormwood and gall to our women! O torture far worse than the rack, To find that the smartest of trim men Are off on a different tack: For both at the helm and the prow, too, There lolls an unspeakable chit, And Thirty now learns she must bow to Fourteen and a bit! Her locks are confined by a ribbon; Her language is open and free; She talks like a parrot, she's glib on The problems that petrify me; Her phrases are novel; to-day, what I marvel at most are the queer Little statements she clinches with "Eh, what!" Tacked on to "Old dear!" Though chaperons tell her where minxes Are certain to go when they die, A sequence of eloquent winks is Her sole and sufficient reply; Though dowagers, itching to slap her, Would send her in tears to her bed, The simply ineffable Flapper Goes smiling instead! And yet, when reflective December Repines at the pertness of May, Sweet solace it is to remember She too has her time of decay: She too, when she starts to put flesh on, Will take a subordinate post, While babies, devoid of discretion, Are ruling the roast! [Illustration: EXCELSIOR! SUFFRAGIST: "It's no good talking to me about Sisyphus. He was only a man!"] The Flapper was destined to assume a more aggressive aspect in later years--_vide_ Dr. Shadwell's indictment in the _Nineteenth Century_--but _Punch's_ concluding reflections hold good. Her attitude towards the Suffrage movement at this stage was perhaps not unfairly summed up in the remark of a younger sister who declared that she did not want women to get the vote, because she "liked hearing about the Suffragettes."