Life, 1914-06-25 · page 16 of 45
Life — June 25, 1914 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon:** "The Discovery of America—If" satirizes early feminist and women's suffrage movements. The figure on horseback carries a banner reading "America for Women Only," flanked by supporters holding a "Feminist" sign. A grotesque dragon-like creature represents masculine resistance or patriarchal society being displaced. This mocks the notion of female-dominated America as absurdly inverted. **"Breeding to Type" Essay:** Argues against eugenics by contrasting pig-breeding (purposeful, single-use) with human breeding (complex, multifaceted). References Anthony Comstock (anti-obscenity crusader) and Rev. Wilbur Crafts to illustrate that even "great" men shouldn't be universally replicated. Critiques deterministic social engineering. **"Guess Again" Joke:** A woman assumes a doctor's professional eminence makes him good at guessing. The humor suggests doctors, despite expertise in medicine, possess no special social perception—a mild jab at professional pretension.
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Breeding to Type T is true, no doubt, that more atten- tion, of a sort, is paid to the breeding of pigs than to the breeding of men. When pigs are mated care is taken to select fit specimens, whereas men mate haphazardly, with little or no intelligent oversight. But what of it? A pig, unhappily, has the advantage of a man in having it known exactly what he is here for. He is here to be eaten—nothing else. When specimens of his kind are chosen to reproduce themselves they are the meaty speci- mens. Man, on the other hand, is here for a number of things, and none of them any too well understood. No man has yet lived so great and good and generally satisfactory that we wish all men were like him. Napoleon was perhaps the greatest of mankind, in point of sheer capacity, but a world full of Napoleons would never do. No more, if you prefer goodness to greatness, would a world of Anthony Comstocks or Rev. Wilbur Crafts. Tt takes all kinds—about as many kinds, it would seem, as our hap- hazard mating produces, And more TE rmorae THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA—1P— than all clse to be considered is the responsibility that rests upon man and so distinguishes him from the beasts that any argument from analogy falls flat. Pork and per- sonality are both good, but the attempt to standardize the processes by which they come into being is not likely to be very successful. Guess Again 'OUNG WOMAN (to her neighbor at dinner): Guess whom I met to-day, Doctor. Doctor: I'm afraid I’m not a good guesser. “You're too modest. Aren't you at the top of your profession?” A TAIL OF TWO CITIES comichooks,