Judge — September 21, 1918 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis: "High Jinks at a Listening Post" This WWI-era satirical piece by Benjamin De Casseres critiques both enemy and Allied powers. The main cartoon depicts a dog being thrown overboard from a ship while lifeboats below ignore it—likely symbolizing how nations sacrifice innocent lives during wartime. The accompanying text uses biting wordplay to attack multiple targets: Russia's authoritarianism ("souse of Democracy"), Germany's militarism and bureaucracy, and even Allied hypocrisy ("France and England and Russia...American raiding squad is outside"). References to Runnymede, the Bastille, and Lexington invoke democratic revolutions while questioning whether current powers truly serve liberty. The smaller sidebar jokes ("His Manliness," "Prepared") mock military recruitment and wartime rationing bureaucracy. The overall message: all warring powers, despite their stated ideals, behave inhumanely and hypocritically. The "listening post" title suggests overhearing uncomfortable truths about the war that polite society prefers to ignore.