The Wasp, 1913 · page 78 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 78: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains **narrative text, not a cartoon**. It appears to be from a serialized fiction story in *The Wasp* magazine rather than satirical comic content. The passage describes a boat arriving at Charles Town (likely Charleston, South Carolina) with characters named Burnham and Todd. Burnham performs an impressive rowing display to impress "the young woman" aboard, then surveys the harbor with apparent strategic interest—noting three vessels and specifically identifying "the New England brig." The tone suggests this is adventure or romance fiction rather than political satire. **Without additional context or visual elements**, it's unclear what historical event or social commentary this story might reference. The colonial setting and mention of vessels suggests possible Revolutionary War-era fiction, but this cannot be confirmed from this page alone. To identify the satirical purpose, one would need to see the accompanying illustrations or read more of the narrative.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WASP 17 Todd obeyed; and Burnham possessed himself of the discarded oar and pulled double. He shot a glance beneath the awning at the young woman, to see whether or not his heroic and humane ac- tion had been noticed. Her eyes were wide open and fixed upon his face in a downright stare of admiration and commendation. He lowered his own glance modestly and pulled desperately at the heavy oars. At last the boat crawled around a point of land and turned sluggishly into the little bay which formed the harbor of Charles Town. Burnham turned on his thwart and surveyed the place with anxious and calculating eyes. He saw three vessels riding at their anchors there, and recognized one of them as the New Eng- land brig. The town itself, clustered close to the gleaming tide at the back of the harbor, was not impressive. Its buildings were small and unbeauti- ful, some of sun-grayed, unpainted wood and some of pink-washed stone. ; But behind the town sloped the wooded hills, and Comicbhooks.com