The Wasp, 1913 · page 205 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 205: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains prose fiction rather than a cartoon. It describes a ship meeting after what appears to be a violent encounter or raid. Captain John Trimmer addresses his surviving crew, including named characters like Slim Sam, Wells, and James Burnham, plus an unnamed young woman at Trimmer's side. The satirical point targets the crew's callous mercenary attitudes: Trimmer jokes that fewer survivors means larger shares of plunder from their spoils—a dark humor that the men appreciate with crude laughter and oaths. The scene suggests maritime piracy or privateering, with the bishop notably absent and some crew wounded. James Burnham watches the woman "covertly, with an ironic glimmer," suggesting romantic or duplicitous subtext. The passage satirizes brutal seafaring culture and the greed motivating such ventures. Without seeing the full serialized story, the specific historical or fictional raid being referenced remains unclear.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ED 200 THE WASP sunset of that busy day. All were present save the bishop—he was that, at least—and two of the wounded. The helmsman attended to the wheel and the meeting at one and the same time, while the cook stood in the door of the galley with one ear devoted to Captain Trimmer and the other to the boiling of his coppers. The young woman stood composedly at Trimmer’s side, her smooth cheeks delicately aglow, her fine eyes languorously inquisitive. Half a dozen men, including Slim Sam, Wells, and James Burnham, stood close to these two. Burnham watched the woman covertly, with an ironic glimmer in his eyes. John Trimmer was in fine feather. He cocked his hat and complimented his comrades on their luck in a few words. He then named the recent and lamented dead, and remarked that a slight de- gree of consolation might be derived from the fact that the fewer the survivors the larger the shares of the spoils. His audience expressed appreciation of his humor with blistering oaths and harsh hoots of laughter. He named the chief items of the plun- Comichooks.com