Judge, 1914-03-28 · page 15 of 24
Judge — March 28, 1914 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon depicts men deliberately loitering on a sidewalk to ogle women passing by. "Willomina Benepole" comments that these idlers are stationed there solely to watch women cross—a commentary on public harassment and male behavior toward women in public spaces. Below, "To a Baby" is a satirical essay mocking the emerging "scientific parenting" movement of the early 20th century. The author ridicules rigid, clock-based baby care that ignores the child's actual needs and emotional development. The satire argues that over-scientization removes maternal warmth—suggesting that a mother's natural human touch and affection ("of the divine") matters more than cold scientific methodology. The piece critiques how science-obsessed parenting denies infants agency, comfort, and personality, treating them as biological specimens rather than human beings deserving love and responsiveness. It's a defense of traditional maternal instinct against mechanistic modern child-rearing ideology.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
wie V NES] Wis | A STANDING COMMITTEE Willomina Benepole—Y" know, my dear, those fellows are standing there for nothing in the world but to see us come across the sidewalk. EE DEAR—Into this world overflowing with science you are come, and here you shall be raised as befits your biology. Wanton wight you may not be; nor shall you ever know in- fancy, infant though you are. Baby psy- chology has no place in scientific baby- land. Perfect physical growth is your destiny. Your habitat shall acquire the approved sanitary standard, naught else being essential. Your birthright is modified milk. Never shall feeding fail at proper intervals, though clocks themselves make faces. Your dainty, tiny form, exposed to the open, shall grow like the flower or the vegetable, while supported in free air and cold by day and night. The elements will juggle with your physiology till you develop sound human machinery of latest modern type. You are helpless, but you shall not lack attention, because your babyship is the only example of animal life that cannot manifest its wants. What you desire Toa By JUDSON M. HINCHTHONE you cannot ask for, yet all that science in its widsom provides for you you shall certainly get. Completely handicapped, you are a prisoner at the mercy of your !:eepers. The little dog or the little cat, the chicken, the calf or the colt may follow its mother whither it will; but you must remain quite passive wherever put. You have no power to gratify either gentlest inclination or veriest need. You cannot leave your cradle. It holds you captive. Eugenics has your proper development in view, and the real nature in you must succumb to it. In your little bed you lie whether asleep or awake, your cry un- heeded, unheard. To science your voice signifies nothing. Science knows better. Science knows what is best for you, and will give you what is best. That being done, nothing more can be done that should be done. You have no preroga- tive, no personality. Your individuality is not worth mentioning. Mayhap, though, some day there will be a slip, a happening, a change, and mother will find you. She will appear to her baby. Some day, perhaps, after you are fed, she will let you lie in her arms. She will hold you to her heart. Then, but not till then, will your soul begin to grow; for mother will bless you with the human touch. That beautiful human touch has in it nothing at all scientific, but it has something that is—ah! some- thin that is of the divine. A Song To Suit Since colored hair is all the rage, The balladists will soon be seen Inspiring plaudits on the stage With ‘Silver Threads among the Green.”” Cynical “Papa, what does the preacher mean when he talks about an ‘angelic choir’?’’ “He means, my dear, the only choir that hasn’t any jealousies.’’ comicbooks.com