The Wasp, 1918 · page 258 of 330
The Wasp — 1918 — page 258: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This appears to be a literary excerpt rather than a political cartoon—a passage from a pirate adventure story featured in *The Wasp*, a satirical magazine. The text presents the internal monologue of **Bill Hook**, a feverish pirate crew member. His crewmate **Tom Croft** plans to murder him in darkness to reduce their unlucky party of thirteen to twelve. Hook reasons that while he generally opposes knifing messmates, this constitutes an "exceptional case"—justifying preemptive self-defense by killing Croft instead. The satire likely mocks the absurd "gentleman pirate" code: Hook insists he's a "good man" and "self-respecting gentleman of fortune" despite being a criminal, and he mentally justifies murder as honorable under specific circumstances. The dark humor undercuts romantic pirate mythology by showing brutal pragmatism dressed in mock-genteel rationalization. Without seeing the original publication date or accompanying illustrations, the broader satirical context remains unclear.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
<b be sp: abusing ed ad cag AC it ee mr a i Nt ati a i a ha a a a ial a A i ail hh lll il | i THE WASP gers He reasoned with himself dully, slowly, clawing his red beard all the while with fingers like yellow bones. Thirteen was an ene number. The number of their company would be reduced to twelve before dawn, for Tom Croft intended to knife him in the dark. Yes, he quite agreed with Croft that thirteen was a bad number for any party setting out on an adventurous under- taking. But he considered it unfair of his mates ~ to take it for granted that the reduction should © be made by eliminating him, because he happened to be suffering from a touch of fever. He, Bill Hook, was still a good man, he’d have them know, even if he wasn’t hog-fat and tuddy asa dairymaid. He’d live to see them all eut down or aswing! He was as good a sailor- man as Tom Croft, he was, and just as bloody a pirate, though maybe not so dirty and brutish in his habits. He’d just put Tom Croft away, that he would, instead of letting Tom put him away. : No self-respecting gentleman of fortune could do less. He didn’t hold with knifing messmates -as a general rule, but he considered this to be a very exceptional case. ~The twelve slumbered deeply in the dark of comichooks.com