The Wasp, 1913 · page 301 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 301: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This appears to be an excerpt from a serialized adventure story rather than a political cartoon. The text describes a violent confrontation aboard a ship (a "brig"), where characters named James Burnham and Todd are engaged in combat with an enslaved Black man who has armed himself with an iron bar and stove. The passage reflects 19th-century popular fiction's depiction of racial violence and slavery-era conflict. The language—particularly "huge negro" and the dehumanizing description of the enslaved man's actions—uses period-typical racist terminology and portrays him as a dangerous threat to be contained. Without seeing accompanying illustrations, I cannot identify whether this is satirical commentary or straightforward adventure narrative. The Wasp was known for satire, but this excerpt's function—whether mocking such violent narratives or endorsing them—remains unclear from text alone.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
a ES 296 THE WASP the rent. Six pistols were passed up to Todd, who methodically discharged all of them through the hole in the roof. “He'll ’ave the brig afire!” cried some one. “He’s upsot the stove!” James ordered water to be passed up over the side and thrown upon the galley. Half a dozen of the brig’s old crew hastened to obey the order. Sud- denly the splinters of the door were driven outward and the iron fire-box of the stove, with fire in its belly, was hurled through the smoking maw. It struck a member of the bucket-brigade full in the chest and hurled him to the deck crushed and burned. After the stove came the huge negro himself, with a bar of iron in his right hand, his left arm hanging limp, and blood streaming down his face. He brained the wounded and prostrate New Englander, then dashed at James Burnham. Half a dozen knives were thrown, and though two of them found their mark, the maddened negro neither halted nor swerved. Burnham had his straight sword in his hand. He sprang lightly aside, turned quicker than Comichooks.com