The Wasp, 1913 · page 112 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 112: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains satirical dialogue about *The Wasp's* apparent serialized fiction. Two men gossip about a young woman who has attracted the wealthy Percy Stanton. She's described as a "penniless" parson's daughter—a social climber in the eyes of Stanton's family, who desire a nobler match. The satire targets class anxiety: Stanton's family resents his beloved because her father makes corsets (then considered low-status manufacturing), while they themselves owe their fortune to that very trade. The men mock this hypocrisy—one wishes his own grandfather had "tried something of the kind." A character named Burnham overhears this gossip and contemplates blackmail, threatening to expose the romance to Stanton's disapproving family. The passage satirizes Victorian-era social climbing, snobbery about commercial origins, and mercenary attitudes toward marriage among the wealthy.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WASP 109 her. He fairly forced Mrs. Black to bring her along as a companion—so the major says.” “Who wouldn’t be?” replied the other. “A nymph, by the Lord Harry! I’d try my own luck there for the fact that I’m too poor to support a penniless wife. But Stanton has plenty of money and more coming to him. Daughter of a parson, isn’t she?” “That’s what she says,” replied the first speaker, “and Mrs. Black vouches for it. Percy’s family won't like it, Pll swear, for they want him to marry into the nobility. You know, I suppose, that the founder of the Stanton fortune was a corset maker. That was Percy’s grandfather. Wish my worthy grandsire had tried something of the kind!” Burnham listened to all this with interest, won- dering who the penniless charmer could be who had won such a hold upon Stanton’s affections. He thought her a fool, whoever-she might be. And then his mind went in search of some way of turn- ing this information to his own advantage. Might he not silence Stanton by threatening to tell to this Comichooks.com