The Wasp, 1913 · page 96 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 96: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains **narrative fiction rather than political satire or cartoons**. It appears to be from a serialized story featuring characters named James Burnham, Elizabeth, and Mr. Queery. The passage depicts a romantic scene where Burnham—presented as a modest hero—recounts his adventures to Elizabeth after she's recovered from fainting. The narrator observes that Burnham exaggerates the money involved (inflating 500 guineas to 1,500), attributing this to "natural, youthful vanity and pride." **The satire here is gentle character critique**: the text ironically excuses Burnham's dishonesty as understandable vanity rather than condemning it as serious deception. This reflects *The Wasp*'s satirical approach to human nature—exposing pretense and small hypocrisies rather than launching political attacks. Without seeing the accompanying illustrations, the full satirical intent remains unclear, though the written commentary suggests mockery of masculine vanity and self-aggrandizement among social climbers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WASP 93 nicely calculated expression of admiration and mod- est confusion in his eyes. “Thank Heaven you have suffered no serious hurt!’ he murmured. She stood beside his chair, placed her right hand in his, and thanked him for his heroic services in a few shy and generous words. He bowed his head in silence, raised her hand a little, and pressed his lips to her cool fingers. James Burnham’s story was a long one, and the latter part of it contained much truth. From the time of his departure from Kingston with his false friend Queery to the moment of his seeing Eliza- beth fall unconscious on the sand, he told his ad- ventures as they had actually happened. He spoke modestly, though he raised the sum of the money which had been given to him by the baronet, and taken from him by Mr. Queery, from five hundred guineas to fifteen hundred guineas. There was no great harm in this, perhaps. A natural, youthful vanity and pride of place would account for a mild deception of the kind. comicbooks.com