Judge — April 14, 1917 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon mocks romantic courtship difficulties. The scene shows a well-dressed man (a "love-sick swain") attempting to court a woman in an elegant parlor setting. The joke centers on the caption's pun: a "cox-swain" (coxswain—the person who steers a boat and shouts commands) is being humorously equated with a man courting a deaf or hard-of-hearing woman. The satire suggests that romantic sweet-talk ("saccharinities") loses its charm when delivered by shouting—reducing tender whispers to loud commands, as if he were steering a boat. The woman's apparent hearing difficulty transforms intimate conversation into something crude and ungainly, undermining the gentleman's romantic efforts entirely.