Life, 1884-02-28 · page 3 of 14
Life — February 28, 1884 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 115 This page satirizes late 19th-century eugenic and "scientific" theories about human improvement through selective breeding. The elaborate cartoon depicts various caricatured figures—appearing to represent different social types—being herded together like cattle, labeled with pseudo-scientific attributes like "Champion" and various physical/mental characteristics. The accompanying song, set to "Yankee Doodle," mocks utopian schemes promising societal perfection through controlled marriage, education, and selective reproduction. References to "Shakespeares turned out by the cord" and guaranteeing "hereditary" traits ridicule the era's popular belief that breeding "superior" people could eliminate crime and disease. The satire targets pseudo-scientific racism and eugenics movements gaining traction among American intellectuals—systems proposing to scientifically "improve" the human stock, which the cartoonist clearly views as absurd social engineering.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
TO BE SUNG TO THE AIR OF “YANKEE DOODLE.” A new society, the College of Heredity, desires to regulate the marriages of the future, according to the fitness of the contracting parties, mentally, morally and physical , expecting that the descendants of such unions will be an improvement on the original stock, and that such a system carried out would produce a superior article to the specimens of humanity at present on exhibition in this or any other country. HOUT with joy, ye peoples all ! Hail our coming glory! Let your thirsty ears drink in Our ecstatic story ! Vanish from the sated earth Crime, disease and passion; In the new regime we found, Science sets the fashion ! Marriage vows no more shall be Things of fancy flighty ; We'll theorize, and analyse, And found a people mighty. 2 We'll stamp each college graduate “Superlatively super” And guarantee the style of each Hereditary whooper. Shakspeares turned out by the cord! Johnny Miltons furnished ! Leave your orders in advance ; Soiled escutcheons burnished ! Scoop ’em in, rake ‘em in, Crank and dude and sinner, While the ranks of crime and woe Thinner grow and thinner ; While the chorus of a clan, Fashioned on this pattern, Thunders through the cosmic space And shakes the rings of Saturn! “Glory to our lofty aims, And our wealth of knowledge ! Glory to the perfect man, And glory to our college! comicbooks.com