The Wasp, 1918 · page 279 of 330
The Wasp — 1918 — page 279: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains no visible cartoon or illustration—it's purely text. It appears to be from a satirical literary piece in *The Wasp* magazine describing a fictional or real settlement involving a woman named Hélène da Silva. The passage imagines the decline of a colonial settlement: disease, crime, and abandonment would drive away inhabitants, while Hélène herself elopes with provisions and "parasites." Nature then reclaims the cleared land as jungle. The final paragraph morbidly catalogs what would remain—rusty weapons, a silver buckle from Hélène's slipper, and human bones reduced to powder. The satire likely targets colonial ventures, their instability, moral corruption ("parasites," "rum"), and the futility of imposing civilization on tropical environments. The tone is darkly ironic, treating colonial collapse as inevitable and deserved. Without identifying the specific settlement or publication date, the exact target remains unclear.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ajo ss THE WASP harbour or of Héléne da Silva; but one can imag- ine fever, murder, rum, and desertion soon depop- ulating the village, and the oft-widowed Hélene eloping in an open boat with all the available provisions of the place and the hardiest of the parasites. One can imagine the vigorous, lush jungle reclaiming the little clearings, burying the. huts and booths, and again overhanging the very lips of the water. : Some treasure might still be found there in some unlooted hole in the ground under the jungle’s heavy shade, and knives bitten deep with rust, and a tarnished buckle of silver from a one of Hélénes little slippers—and bones gone™ | to grey powder. : . lcomicbooks.con