The Two Paths

Illustrations from an early twentieth century manual on “social hygiene.”

Questions provoked by these images:

1. What’s the “bad literature” the young girl is reading?
2. Can you imagine sixty being a “venerable old age”? (In 1900, the life expectancy of a white male like me was forty-seven(!)—I’d be in my dotage now at the age of forty.)
3. Why do men get an extra eight years before their life falls apart?
4. Am I the only one that would love to see the return of “social hygiene” manuals?

(Via: Sociological Images )