The Wasp, 1918 · page 284 of 330
The Wasp — 1918 — page 284: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This appears to be a satirical dialogue from *The Wasp*, a 19th-century American satirical magazine. The text mocks the marriage institution and class anxiety through the story of "Percy," a corset-maker's son whose family desperately arranges a marriage to a baron's daughter to gain respectability. When the match fails, Percy descends into poverty and domestic abuse. The satire targets multiple subjects: the mercenary nature of marriage among the aspiring middle class; women's legal entrapment in marriage regardless of abuse (the speaker notes Kitty stays married "according to the laws of church and state"); and the pretensions of social climbing. The mention of Bob Willis—a poor man Kitty may have loved but couldn't marry due to Percy's supposed wealth—further critiques how economic circumstances, rather than genuine affection, dictate matrimonial outcomes. The overall point appears to be cynical commentary on Victorian marriage as a legalized trap prioritizing class and money over happiness or safety.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WASP 2 2a6 in Berkshire! ‘There was the deuce to pay, for his people had set their hearts on his making a fine match. His father and mother_and sisters had even gone so far as to find a daughter of a ruined baron, who was willing to marry our bold Percy for the spending of the corset-maker’s fortune. They gave Percy a thousand guineas in hand, settled an annuity of twenty-five guineas on him to expire when he expired, kicked him out of Corset Castle, and told him to go to the deuce. You saw his start, Jack. He’s finishing in the lowest pot-houses; and I hear that he vents his spleen on his wife. He beats her, they say, and starves her.” ** Why does she stay with ae if she’s such a beauty ?” ** Because she’s married to him. The oa of being a real wife, according to the laws of church and state, is what holds her to the fellow, past a doubt. Maybe you have seen a small / young man named Bob Willis around the town _—a ship’s surgeon, or something of that kind? No? This Willis knew the pair in Jamaica or Tobago or wherever Percy was stationed, and fell in love with the fair Kitty. It may be that she liked Willis ; but Willis was poor, and Percy was supposed to be rich. Willis is here now. comichbooks.com