Judge, 1913-07-12 · page 11 of 24
Judge — July 12, 1913 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous short story illustration about a male swimmer who frequents the beach to teach pretty girls to swim—his actual hobby, though he claims to merely rescue drowning women. The satire targets male vanity and predatory flirtation disguised as heroism. The protagonist is portrayed as a serial seducer who uses swimming lessons as a pretext for attention from women. The joke intensifies when he encounters a new girl in an unwet bathing suit, suggesting she's deliberately avoiding the water to maintain her appearance—subverting his usual conquest strategy. The titled caption "CAUGHT" implies he's finally met his match: a girl more interested in being admired than actually swimming. The illustration shows him gesturing toward the water while figures (possibly already-taught girls) appear in the background. This reflects early 20th-century beach culture anxieties about courtship rituals and gender dynamics, satirizing both male presumption and female coquetry.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HE COULD negotiate the briny like a merman. When the surf was high he was in his glory. When the sea was rolling lazily he would stretch due course of time become hermits. Hermits do himself on the sands and dream—unlees there was not figure appreciably in the male census. a pretty gil in sight. Matrons had no charmfor | C A U GH T Many a pretty girl had this chap seen, talked him, although he had been known to rescue two to, and taught. And it was his purpose to keep it of three ignorant of the brutality of breakers that up as long as pretty girls happened to this shore, on which he almost figured as a monopolist. had given them more than a taste of salt water. And he was always polite enough to answer their questions about the weather. Spinsters of uncertain years and certain lacks to the eye he would flee on sight, even if he had to break his own notable record as a submarine swimmer. But a pretty girl. Ah! he loved to look at one. He loved better to talk t0 one, He loved best to teach one to swim. Yet he was not Le Oe CREE i OU SOE SS — = , KH original in this, Other like men who do not love to see, talk to and teach ‘pretty girls to swim in One day he spied a new pretty girl in a bath- ing suit that never had been wet. Apparently she did not intend that it should be wet. Its dry charm was sufficient, and served every coquet- tish purpose, on a figure as to the exact proportions of which no man with good eyes need have guessed. She wore on her head a silk cap that emphasized the charm of vagrant locks. Her mouth would have comicbooks.com