Judge, 1918-04-27 · page 3 of 36
Judge — April 27, 1918 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a poem by Maurice Switzer with illustration by Charles Sarka. The verse catalogs various modern anxieties and dissatisfactions—autumn melancholy, lost romance, spiritual emptiness, moral compromise, financial disappointment, scandal, and existential ennui. Each stanza begins with "When," describing scenarios of doubt, weakness, and disillusionment. The final lines pivot sharply: when life feels like a gamble and your mind wanders while hands idle, the cure is **work**—presented as salvation from modern malaise. The illustration shows a muscular, athletic man at an industrial site, embodying vigor and productive labor. This appears to be early 20th-century social commentary promoting work ethic and labor as antidote to the psychological and moral ailments of contemporary urban life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WV hen— By Maurice Switzer Illustration by Cuartes Sara HEN autumn’s gold and umber, Or the emerald of spring, Lull your senses into slumber; When your heart should leap and sing; When Phoebus, low descending, Tints the snow-capped peaks with rose, And you miss the color-blending, And only see the snows; When you find no recreation Beside the purling brooks, NO whit of inspiration *Twixt the covers of your books; When you look with cold suspicion Into frankly honest eyes; When foolish superstition Sane reasoning defies; When healthy moderation Seems beyond your weakened will; When in scandal or sensation You alone can find a thrill; When vour appetite is jaded; When you lie awake in bed Till the pallid stars have faded And the east is tinged with red; When the things you buy for money No longer yield a joy; When you shun the places sunny For the shadows that decoy; When of pleasures vain and idle You have run the gamut through, Till something suicidal Holds the one appeal that’s new; When you feel that life’s a gamble, That the stakes are tawdry, cheap; When your mind’s been on the ramble While your hands have been asleep; Then—perhaps, in emulation Of the hookah-smoking Turk, Your life’s been one vacation: If it has—your cure is WORK! comicbooks.com