Life, 1916-12-07 · page 29 of 94
Life — December 7, 1916 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the early 20th-century eugenics movement through a mock-classical poem (styled after Horace). The "lovers' quarrel" between Lydia, Horace, Daphne, and Marcus centers on romantic choices justified by eugenic pseudoscience rather than genuine affection. The joke: characters evaluate potential partners not on love or character, but on whether they've passed "eugenics board" tests and possess scientifically "superior" proportions and percentages. Lydia prefers Marcus because "science must ratify" him; Horace offers to abandon his beloved Daphne if his eugenic "percentage" ranks higher than Marcus's. The satire mocks how eugenics rhetoric had permeated even intimate personal decisions in 1920s America, reducing romance to pseudo-scientific measurement. The elaborate classical framing underscores the absurdity of applying reductive biological determinism to human relationships.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
we Christmas Life VATRON SAINTS OF THE THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE DAYS OF THLE YEAR A Lovers’ Quarrel (After Horace, Book 23, 41144) Lypta WHAT though you, Horace, spout poems all day, Gracing your speech with inspired calisthenics, Have you been passed by the erudite, gray Board of Eugenics? Horace Haply your test for acceptable lads Elegance, art and affection eliminates! Daphne’: ove mathematical fads— Daphne discriminates, Lypia Go to your Daphne, if flatteries lure! I prefer suitors with charts that will satisfy: Marcus's lordly proportions, I'm sure, Science must ratify! Horact Daphne, the chit, is a fancy long past! What if I swear that for you I resigned her? If my percentage has Marcus ontelassed Will you he kinder? Daphne, you vow, I ¢ fallacious: Then—since you're fond, and cugenic as well— Me for Horatius! Corinne Rockwell Swain, comicbooks.com