The Wasp, 1913 · page 65 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 65: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This appears to be a narrative fiction excerpt rather than a political cartoon. The text describes a scene from an adventure story featuring characters named Burnham and an unnamed boy who have apparently escaped some dangerous situation ("corner") and are stranded near a coast. The passage details their survival activities: preparing breakfast in a grove of trees and Burnham shaving himself using butter as lather and a stolen knife from someone named Mr. Winch. The humor derives from the practical difficulties of this improvised grooming—Burnham struggles to remove the butter afterward, requiring repeated scrubbing with seawater and sand. There are no identifiable political figures or social commentary visible. This reads as serialized adventure fiction typical of 19th-century periodicals, likely intended for entertainment rather than satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
64 THE WASP twinkled quite kindly. Circumstances were making something of an actor of him. “If we ever get out of this corner, you'll never lack for a berth,” he replied. “And now we'll breakfast again under these trees. Give me the knife and fetch up the best of the provisions. We can’t be many miles from a house or plantation of some sort, or more than two days’ journey from a port, at the worst.” “I stole this here knife from Mr. Winch,” said the boy, passing it over. Among the provisions which the lad carried up from the boat to the grove was a little crock of butter. After the second breakfast Burnham smeared some of this butter over his face and set to shaving himself with Mr. Winch’s big knife. The knife was a fine piece of cutlery, with an edge like a razor’s, and Burnham made a successful job. of the operation. He had a deal of trouble in re- moving the butter, however, and was forced to scrub his face a dozen times with sea-water and sand. ; Comicooks.com