The Wasp, 1918 · page 11 of 330
The Wasp — 1918 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains narrative text rather than a cartoon. It describes a scene of convicted prisoners—"jail-birds"—being transported to the ship *Good Cheer* for transportation to the West Indies. The passage emphasizes the brutal conditions: prisoners in irons, various emotional reactions to their fate, and an armed, intoxicated escort. The text focuses on a character named Burnham, who observes this "pitiful and foul company" with cold indifference from a shop doorway. The narrator describes Burnham's heart as emotionally hardened—"a lump of stone" that could be heated but not melted. He views the cruelty dispassionately, though his interest briefly quickens upon spotting a "known face" among the condemned. The passage appears to critique both the convict transportation system and Burnham's moral callousness.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
2 THE WASP the West Indies, had purchased two hundred malefactors from the historic prison and was now marching them to Billingsgate, off which lay the brig Good Cheer, all ready for her freight of hopeless humanity and <her one vovase to the south and west. 2 The jail-birds walked in . pairs, ironed at wrists and ankles. Many were young, many were in middle life, and only a few were old—for the gentleman from Nevis had made a good bargain with the authorities of the jail. Some of the ‘poor devils wept openly, some cursed and raveds — and others walked with closed eyes and stricken | faces. The escort. of ants 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. He looked onat the cruellest ae to be seen that. day in all England with a cool and ironic glance- — ‘Yet his interest was somewhat quickened upon beholding a known face in that pitiful pro- *comicnacks.com