The Wasp, 1913 · page 313 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 313: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This appears to be the **final page of a serialized story** rather than a political cartoon. The text describes the fate of a ship called the *Wasp* and a colonial settlement at "Trimmer's harbor." The narrative concerns a character named Héléne da Silva, described as "oft-widowed," who escapes in a boat with provisions and "parasites" as the settlement collapses into disease, crime, and abandonment. The jungle reclaims the abandoned village while treasure and remnants (corroded knives, a silver buckle from Héléne's slipper, bones) presumably remain buried. **Context unclear**: Without seeing earlier pages, it's impossible to identify the specific political satire or social commentary intended. This could reference actual colonial ventures, piracy, or serve as allegorical commentary on imperial collapse—but the page alone doesn't reveal what real events or figures are being satirized.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
a 306 THE WASP sand pounds’ worth of coin and jewels? He did not think so—and the twenty were with him in that. So the Wasp, now as black as she had been white in the days of her glory, stood boldly out to sea. I know nothing of the fate of Trimmer’s harbor or of Héléne da Silva; but one can imagine fever, murder, rum, and desertion soon depopulating the village, and the oft-widowed Héléne eloping in an open boat with all the available provisions of the place and the hardiest of the parasites. One can imagine the vigorous, lush jungle reclaiming the little clearings, burying the huts and booths, and again overhanging the very lips of the water. Some treasure might still be found there in some’ unlooted hole in the ground under the jungle’s heavy shade, and knives bitten deep with rust, and a tar- nished buckle of silver from one of Héléne’s little slippers—and bones gone to gray powder. Comichooks.com