The Wasp, 1913 · page 63 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 63: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This appears to be a narrative excerpt rather than a cartoon page. It's prose fiction describing two characters—Todd and Burnham—who have been set adrift and landed on St. Kitts in the West Indies. The passage satirizes the plight of gentlemen reduced to poverty and degradation. Burnham, clearly a man of some social standing (he maintained smooth skin and wore fine linen), is now desperate, penniless, and disheveled after apparently being robbed and abandoned. The humor lies in the contrast between his former civilized existence and his current squalid condition—stripped of stockings and shoes, shirt torn and soiled, unshaven. The text suggests this is from a serialized adventure story in *The Wasp*, likely mocking the misfortunes of its protagonist through detailed descriptions of his physical and social decline. Without seeing accompanying illustrations, the satirical intent focuses on the humiliation of a once-refined gentleman.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ee 62 THE WASP Ds SN PELL ES PLES AT OTT er RC ra RNC “Ves, sir,” whined the lad, cringing. They beached the boat and went ashore to spy out the country. Todd recognized nothing that he saw, for, though he had sailed two voyages to the West Indies, he had never had so much as an hour of shoreleave on any island. Burnham was at his wit’s end for a plan of cam- paign. He devoted an hour to a cautious inspection of his immediate surroundings. He knew nothing of his whereabouts and could only suppose that he was somewhere on the windward coast of St. Kitts. He was without money. His garb was of the scanti- est, for on the night of the robbery he had sat up to the bowl of punch in nothing more than shirt, breeches, silk stockings, and shoes, for comfort’s sake. His stockings and buckled shoes had been taken from him before he had been set adrift. Now his shirt of fine linen was grievously torn and soiled, and his breeches had suffered from the dust and splinters of the brig’s forecastle. His lip, chin, and cheeks, which he had kept smooth as glass under civilized conditions, were Comicnooks.com