The first thing you have to tackle with this book is the title, since these stories are not fables and there is little "slang". Ade was not a fantasist. These are very short, realistic, and sometimes very funny stories. He called them fables because they all have a moral, but the moral is ironic, meant to underline the hypocracy and narrow vision of small town mid-west America in the turn of the Century (19th-20th Century). By slang he meant these are stories in the vernacular, written in a conversational tone. Ade was a Drieser in miniature, and one of our best humorists, and his fans included Edmund Wilson and fellow Hoosier Jean Shephard (another underappreciated humorist, remembered for the film The Christmas Story).

This book is WEIRD. It's weird mostly because it's SOOOOO dated that it's hard to understand it.
It is composed of many fables (that you've never heard) written in slang... But it's slang from THEN, not now. A lot of the "slang" has become common language now, so it doesn't seem like slang at all. However, some of the slang is so unusual that it's hard to figure out what Mr. Ade is talking about.
I love this book. I bought it for about [price] in an antique shop many years ago and have loved it ever since. There is one fable called The Fool Killer (or something to that effect... I don't have it here in front of me) that really resonates with me. It pokes fun of people who make themselves miserable in order to endure a day of "fun".
If you're the type of person who likes to collect weird old books, this is the book for you.

Christmas in the Midwest! the very best of all! From Chicago's Miracle Mile with its myriad of gaily colored lights and its blazing store windows - to the small midwest cities with their downtown lampposts festooned with evergreen and silvery tinsel - to the small towns with their Season's Greetings bannered across the intersection of Main and Elm Streets - to the farm scenes with strings of red and green bulbs entwined round the spindly legs of long-unused windmills and the picture window curtains drawn back to let the tree lights gleam out over the new fallen snow.

And Christmas Eve in little frame and brick churches with "readings" and songs by the children - a decorated tree and some rosy-faced neighbor in a Santa Claus costume - Christmas mornings with families round the tree and the gaily wrapped gifts with their promises waiting to be unwrapped.

And then go over the hill to Grandma's house where all the aunts, uncles and cousins gathered for a gala Christmas feast!

These are images and recollections that M idwesterners and exiled Midwesterners share. You will find these memories and more in the pages of Christmas in the Midwest. Here is a rich assortment in poem, picture, and story, all done by the best of midwest writers and artists such as, Hamlin Garland, Bess Streeter Aldrich, James Whitcomb Riley, John Muir, Marjorie Holmes, Paul Engle, Hartzell Spence, Phil Stong and Susan Allen Toth. They share stories about the Midwest's very first Christmases, Christmases of the pioneers, and Christmases in this changing twenty-first century. Wether the stories and poems are real or imagined, or mixtures of memory and "might-have-been," this collection is guaranteed to stir heartwarming memories of Christmas in the Midwest, and the spirit of the season everywhere.

I came across this author while reading H.L. Mencken's book on the American language. Mencken, whose opinions I generally admire, suggested that Ade was a noteworthy purveyor of American slang, a-la Twain. What I found, after investigating this book, is that Ade was also a noteworthy purveyor of American satire, akin to both Twain and Mencken himself.

These selections deal primarily with the early 20th century occupation of the Phillipines by the American military after the Spanish - American war. Using numerous vehicles, including a satirical play and a dialogue between a father and son, as well as essays, Ade forcefully gets his point across that American interests in the Phillipines were disingenuous, at best, and probably downright spurious. Yet he doesn't try to hit anyone over the head with angry polemics. His wry brand of satire and warm humor turn the trick instead. As such, he offers an effective counterbalance to the firebrand style of William Randolph Hearst, et al.

Ade's efforts have a great deal of relevance today, as we are engaged, once again, in debates over globalization and the westernization of third-world countries. The questions he raises still have merit. His targets haven't shifted much in 100 years. Definitely worth a look, not only for its political relevance, but as an example of American prose craftsmanship.

Edited by Perry E. Gianakos, an authority on the literary response to the Philippine-American War (1899-1902), this book collects the series of satirical columns George Ade wrote for the Chicago Record between July and October, 1899, about a U.S. missionary's experiences while trying to bring "progress and civilization" to a Filipino family. Ade's stories are unusual for their Philippine setting and attention to the cultural implications of the U.S. colonization of the Philippines. Gianakos's introductory essay provides good historical and biographical background.