The Wasp, 1913 · page 141 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 141: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains prose fiction rather than a political cartoon. It depicts a romantic/dramatic scene between a male character and a woman named "Kitty" in what appears to be a Caribbean setting ("these islands," "Nevis"). The man makes an impassioned appeal to the woman, boasting of his self-made success despite hardship and proposing marriage. He presents himself as a daring adventurer ("born with teeth") unafraid of risk. The woman's ambiguous response—verbally refusing but physically unresisting—suggests she may be testing or manipulating him. The narrator hints the man is too emotionally aroused to notice her deception. Without knowing the publication date or this story's context in *The Wasp*, the exact satirical target remains unclear, though the passage may mock romantic melodrama or certain masculine archetypes popular in period fiction.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
138 THE WASP dear! You know him; and look at me, my kitten. If my father disowns me, do I go naked and hun- ‘gry? I have been robbed at home, and again in these islands; but do you see me in rags, or slink- ing in side alleys, or any man’s servant? Nature armed me at birth for the game of life. I see a play in these seas, my girl, that lacks nothing but a true gamester. I shall grasp a fortune among these islands. Come back to me, Kitty! We are of the spirit that rides defeat, you and I. I was born with teeth, as some play writer has said of some king. Come away from Nevis with me, and I swear that I will make you my wife, my pretty!” He slipped_his left arm about her slender waist as she sat in the saddle. “You must let me go,” she whispered; but she neither struggled in his embrace nor urged the pony forward or aside. Had his mind not been dulled by the heat of his blood, he would have suspected a trick of some kind ; but he laughed, clasped her in both arms, and drew her tantalizing face downward and sidewise Comichooks.com