The Wasp, 1918 · page 292 of 330
The Wasp — 1918 — page 292: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents a dramatic domestic scene from a serialized story rather than a political cartoon. The narrative involves three characters: Kitty (a woman), James (a mysterious visitor), and Stanton (her husband, absent from this scene). The plot concerns a past romantic entanglement. James, disguised in a beard, once beat Stanton. Now unmasked, James confronts Kitty, who fears and despises him as "the devil." However, James claims he never raised a hand against *her* specifically, and renews a marriage proposal he'd apparently made before she married Stanton. The satire appears to target Victorian melodrama conventions—the overwrought emotional declarations, the mysterious visitor, the theme of compromised women and honor. Without seeing other pages or issue context, the specific social critique remains unclear, though The Wasp typically satirized San Francisco society, politics, and moral hypocrisy of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WASP 283 scabbard and the knife to its sheath, and rapped softly on the door. The door was opened by Kitty. James seeped smartly within and shut the door behind him. Kitty uttered a little cry and recoiled from him fearfully. She fled to the farther side of the little table. “You!” she cried, with a hand on her breast. “TI knew you—that night you came and beat him—though you wore a great beard. He did not know you. Why have you come? Is not my misery black enough as it is? ”’ James bowed, hatinhand. He smiled grimly. ** Calm yourself,” he said. ‘* I have no inten- tion of beating you, my dear. I leave that to your charming husband. You will be good enough to remember that I never so much as raised a hand against you in my life. Why are you afraid of me? Why do you hate me?” **] think you are the devil,” she replied faintly. “i I am the devil, then what is Stanton ?” “ He is.a fool, a coward, a beast ; but I do not | fear him. I despise him—yes, and now I hate him; but I do not fear him. He married me.” * But didn’t I offer to marry you? Yes, and now I repeat the offer.” comichooks.com