The Wasp, 1913 · page 9 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains no cartoon or illustration—it's text only, appearing to be the opening of a narrative story titled "The Wasp." The passage describes Captain Sterling, a wealthy Nevis planter, transporting 200 convicts purchased from a historic English prison to his ship, the *Good Cheer*, bound for the West Indies. The narrator describes the prisoners' varied reactions to deportation, then focuses on a character named Burnham observing the scene with cold indifference—his heart compared to unmelting stone. **Context for modern readers:** This likely reflects 18th or 19th-century transportation practices, when British convicts were forcibly sent to colonial labor. The passage's sympathetic treatment of prisoners' suffering, contrasted with Burnham's cruelty, suggests satirical or moral critique of the system and its participants.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
8 THE WASP Captain Sterling, a wealthy planter of Nevis in the West Indies, had purchased two hundred male-_ factors from the historic prison and was now march- ing them to Billingsgate, off which lay the brig Good Cheer, all ready for her freight of hopeless humanity and her long voyage to the south and west. The jailbirds walked in pairs, ironed at wrists and ankles. Many were young, many were in middle life, and only a few were old—for the gen- tleman from Nevis had made a good bargain with the authorities-of the jail. Some of the poor devils wept openly, some cursed and raved, and others walked with closed eyes and stricken faces. The escort of this pitiful and foul company was a rabble. All of its members were armed and many of them were intoxicated. It was a sight to wrench a man’s heart; but Burnham looked out at it coldly from the doorway of the little shop. His heart was of no more value than a lump of stone, so far as emotions were concerned. It could be heated, but it could not be melted. Comichooks.com