Life, 1904-09-08 · page 9 of 20
Life — September 8, 1904 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This whimsical illustration satirizes modern child-rearing practices through the eyes of insects. The poem "The Modern Child" (right) laments how contemporary children are over-managed—"studied terrificially," "harness scholastically," "cultured," "lectured religiously," etc.—contrasting with traditional childhood freedoms. The cartoon depicts beetles and insects gazing at a lunar eclipse, suggesting even primitive creatures experience wonder naturally. The satire implies modern parenting has so over-systematized childhood that human children have lost the capacity for simple, authentic experience that comes naturally to lower creatures. The accompanying anecdote about Arabella's literary career reinforces the theme: overly-ambitious parental direction produces disappointing results.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
243 The Modern Child. ORN scientifically, Studied terrifically, Clothed very carefully, Dieted sparefully, Aired systematically, Bathed most emphatically, Played with quite drearily, Punished Spencerially, Sweet infantility, Steeped in gentility, Santa Claus banished, Mother Goose vanished, Where are the babies, The real human babies, The olden time knew ? Harnessed scholastically, Drilled superdrastically, Cultured prodigiously, Lectured religiously, Classified rigidly, Reasoned with frigidly, Loved analytically, Listened to critically, Dosed with the * ologies,” Rushed through the colleges, rammed pedagogically, Finished ” most logically, Where is the childhood, The fresh, happy childhood, The olden time knew ? Children successively Reated thus aggressively, Posing eternally, Wearied infernally, Planned for initially, Formed” artificially, Will they submit to it ? Never cry * Quit 1” to it? Will not analysis. Stop from paralysis ? Till our distraction Ends with reaction, Brings back the childhood, The bright, careless childhood, The olden time knew ! James F. Morton, Fr. % He°™ did her parents come to choose a literary career for Arabella?” “Well, she didn’t turn out quite right. They were afraid she didn’t have ability enough to be an ordinary wife and mother.”’ EVERAL §automobilists have recently had their cars arranged to run on the railroad tracks. Even if they crowd the locomotives off onto the roads, this might be some AN ECLIPSE OF THE MOON IN BEETLEBURG. relief. comicbooks.com