The Wasp, 1913 · page 110 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 110: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This text passage (no visible cartoon on this page) satirizes 19th-century American dining customs and masculine behavior. It describes a formal dinner where spirits flow freely and heavy drinking is socially expected among gentlemen—a normalized excess that wives and mothers accept without shock. The satire focuses on **James Burnham**, who notably avoids alcohol not from moral conviction but purely practical reasons: he needs steady hands and clear eyes to clip **Stanton's comb** (unclear what this means—possibly a literal task or an idiom for some act). **Elizabeth Nash's tea urn** receives minimal patronage, highlighting how tea-drinking was socially marginal compared to spirits and wine consumption. The passage mocks the era's "robust" drinking culture while exposing Burnham's unsentimental, utilitarian approach to sobriety—undermining any romantic interpretation of his restraint.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WASP 107 baked yams, roast fowl, curries, omelets, jellies, and fruits. Spirits and wines were served throughout the meal. Decanters and gilt-inscribed bottles stood honestly upon the white cloth, and something was within reach of every hand. In case the liquor which you particularly wanted happened to be more than the length of your arm away, all you had to do was to ask some one to push it along to you. But few of the gentlemen patronized Elizabeth Nash’s silver tea urn. Only James Burnham and the lady drank tea; and you must not think that Burnham drank it with any idea of pleasing the lady. His motive for avoiding the spirits and Wines was not a tender or sentimental one. He was simply. considering the steadiness of his eye and his hand, with a view to making a neat job of clipping Stanton’s comb. Gentlemen were expected to drink more than was good for them in those robust days, and in this matter they usually did what was expected of them. Mothers, wives, daughters, and sweethearts were not shocked unduly by flushed faces, thick voices, Comichooks.com