The Wasp, 1913 · page 288 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 288: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This appears to be a narrative text passage rather than a political cartoon or satirical illustration. The page shows page 283 from *The Wasp*, a satirical magazine, but the content is a fictional story excerpt. The passage describes "Bill Hook," a fevered member of a thirteen-person expedition, who discovers that his companion "Tom Croft" plans to murder him that night to reduce their unlucky number to twelve. Bill reasons that while he agrees thirteen is bad luck, it's unfair his mates assume *he* should be eliminated simply because he's sick. **Without seeing accompanying illustrations**, I cannot identify specific historical figures or political references this story might satirize. The narrative appears to be either: adventure fiction with satirical undertones about group dynamics and survival ethics, or an allegory for some contemporary (to *The Wasp*) social or political situation—but the specific target remains unclear from text alone. To properly identify the satire's meaning, the magazine's publication date and any illustrations would be essential.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
pS HU SS ct Trae THE WASP 283 sleep. The fact that Bill Hook did not lie down with them escaped their notice in the dark. Bill was not more than fifty yards away from the resting-place of the twelve. He lay down on the warm loam and shook with the ague-chills of his fever. The sickness passed in time, leaving him deathly weak and fatigued for an hour. He got to his feet at last and leaned against a tree. He drew his knife from its sheath and felt edge and point with a-calloused thumb. He reasoned with himself dully, slowly, clawing his red beard all the while with fingers like yellow bones. : Thirteen was an unlucky number. The number of their company would be reduced to twelve before dawn, for Tom Croft intended to knife him in the dark. Yes, he quite agreed with Croft that thirteen was a bad number for any party setting out on an adventurous undertaking. But he considered it unfair of his mates to take it for granted that the reduction should be made by eliminating him, be- cause he happened to be suffering from a touch of fever. Sa He, Bill Hook, was still a good man, he’d have Comiciooks.com