Life, 1901-03-07 · page 3 of 20
Life — March 7, 1901 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Professional Asinininity" — Life Magazine Satire This page satirizes Dr. Chilton, a Minnesota State Senator who proposed legislation restricting women's marriage rights—specifically banning women over forty-five from marrying and prohibiting marriage after that age, based on his belief that children of older mothers aren't "worth raising." The article mocks his proposal as absurdly presumptuous. It argues that while professionals naturally possess some foolishness, this particular position represents extreme professional arrogance. The satire notes that even high-church Episcopal clergy—traditionally criticized for snobbery—aren't this unreasonable. The cartoon illustrates the piece's contempt for such legislative overreach into personal reproductive decisions, positioning Chilton's proposal as laughably misguided paternalism masked as public policy.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Professional Asininity. INNESOTA has a doctor named Chilton, a Stato Senator, who has introduced a bill in the Minnesota Legislaturo to restrict marriages. Among other impertinences he puts the age limit for women at forty-five, and wants to prohibit women from marry- ing after that age, becauso he thinks the children of women older than that are not worth raising. Is not that almost incredible? How many children have been born in Minnesota in the last ten years whose mothers married after forty-five? Is the evil so grave and so common that there is need of passing laws about it? Most professional men have a certain amount of professional foolishness. That comes natural and must be expected even of sensible men. But when an ass is an ass on the lines of his pro- fession the result is wonderful. Doctors need plenty of horse sense. When a doctor is an ass on professional lines, you think he is the greatest ass in the world, until you remember what unri- valed professional asses some clergymen are. There is a stripe of high-church Episcopal clergy- men which can’t be beat for professional asininity. And yet it isn’t at all because they are high.” church Episcopalians, for there are clergymen of that disposition who are admirably wise and large- minded men, ey ELL, I see they are going to have a real Naval Arch,” ‘* What's the idea of that?’’ “*Oh_ I suppose it’s to commemo- rate the way Dewey has been forgotten.” TO CLORINDA, PAREWELL THE WORLD! ‘TI8 LENT, MY DEAR, LET'S PLY THE CROWD, AND I'LL DISCOVER 6OME PIOUS PLACE, WHERE, WITHOUT FEAR, VLL COURT YOU, SWEETHEART, UNDER CovEn.