The Wasp, 1913 · page 308 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 308: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains serialized fiction rather than a cartoon. It's a moralistic narrative about John Trimmer, apparently a ship captain or naval officer who has committed treachery against figures named Burnham and "Le Diable" (The Devil). The text describes Trimmer's psychological unraveling following his betrayal—he murdered a spy who exposed him, and now suffers paranoid dread. The passage emphasizes divine retribution, suggesting his guilt is literally a "sickness of the soul" rather than physical illness. His authority crumbles and his life faces ruin. This appears to be a serialized tale with moralistic undertones typical of 19th-century American magazines: betrayal and sin inevitably bring supernatural or karmic consequences. Without additional context about the full story or publication date, the specific historical references remain unclear, though naval settings were common in period fiction.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WASP 301 were not convincing. There was talk of Trim- mer’s jealousy of Burnham, and the spy who had served him in the matter of the frigate Thunder- ous dropped a few words of the truth. Trimmer went ashore and knifed the spy—but the mischief had been done. He was told to his face that by his treachery against Burnham and Le Diable he had everlastingly damned his luck. He was afraid, despite his blustering oaths and blasphemous threats. He went aboard the schooner and turked in his cabin like a hunted bear in its den. A sickness was upon him which made his nights hideous with dreams and open-eyed visions, and strangled his days with vague dread. He thought it was a slow fever, bred of the mists of the marsh to the right of the harbor; but in reality it was a sickness of the soul, bred of the poison of his innumerable bloody sins against God and man. Fear was a strange messmate for John Trimmer, but now it was at his elbow night and day, urging him out to sea with one hand and holding him to his anchors with the other. He saw his authority shaking for a fall, he saw his very life threatened, Comichooks.com