The Wasp, 1913 · page 324 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 324: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This appears to be a passage from a serialized fictional narrative rather than a political cartoon. The text describes a dramatic scene involving theft and violence, likely from a crime or adventure story. The plot involves a protagonist named James who has hidden stolen diamonds inside a fake leather hump (a disguise device). After an intruder brutally beats a husband with a supple-jack (a flexible weapon), James retrieves his hidden treasure—gemstones described as glowing with colored fire. Without seeing accompanying illustrations or knowing the publication date and story title, it's unclear what social commentary this might contain. The narrative emphasizes James's careful preparation and the violence of the theft, but **I cannot identify the specific political or satirical targets** this story may have been mocking or critiquing in its original context. The page represents *The Wasp's* literary content rather than visual satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WASP 317 The intruder snatched up the discarded supple- jack and laced the prostrate husband about the back and legs until the cloth of the garments was cut into ribbons. This done, he left the room without a word, and returned to the street by the way he had come up from it, taking the supple-jack with him. < On the next night James attired himself in his new, fine clothes, his new wig, and his new hat. He cut a distinguished figure. Before leaving his bedroom he produced the artificial hump of leather from its hiding-place. He laid the contrivance on the dressing-table between the two candles, untied some thongs on the under side of it, and raised a flap of leather. Evidently the thing was a receptable as well as a disguise, for from its hollow interior he drew sev- eral small but heavy packets, done up securely in canvas. With the point of his knife he cut the threads which bound one of the packets. He turned back the canvas, and a blaze of many-colored fires _ leaped up between his hands. There lay diamonds, alive with white flames and Comichooks.com