The Wasp, 1918 · page 296 of 330
The Wasp — 1918 — page 296: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a narrative fiction piece, not a political cartoon. It tells a morality tale typical of Victorian-era satirical magazines. The story depicts Percy Stanton, a drunk gentleman leaving a pub at 2 AM, bitter about his marriage to "Kitty," whom he blames for costing him £7,000 annually. He threatens domestic violence against her. Meanwhile, two criminals—a cripple and a fake beggar (renting crutches)—lie in wait in a dark alley to rob him. The setup appears designed to satirize upper-class vice and irresponsibility: Stanton's drunkenness, marital cruelty, and carelessness make him an easy target for street criminals. The implicit moral message: a man of "his parts" (social status) has degraded himself through drink and vice, rendering him vulnerable to the urban underworld. This reflects period anxieties about class dissolution and urban danger.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WASP 287 Percy Stanton reeled out of the “ Spotted Dog” at exactly two hours after midnight. He was in his usual condition, and, finding the - flagged footpath too narrow for him, made frequent excursions into the cobbled gutter. Here was a pretty state of affairs for a man of his parts, he reflected—and all because he had been fool enough to let Kitty trick him into marrying her. She was a sly little puss, she was! She had done him out of seven thousand pounds a year. He cursed thickly at the thought and vowed he’d make the skin jump on her shoulders when he got home. The supple-jack had gone, ’tis true ; but he had a leather belt that would serve his purpose. | The corner of Hound Alley and Little Spanish | Street was very dark. In a black doorway sat an ancient cripple. In one hand he grasped two golden guineas—undreamed-of wealth. He _ grinned andlistened—and waited. In the gutter | waited another ragged and crooked fellow, | leaning heavily upon the crutches which he had | _ rented for a little while from the ‘cripple in the | doorway. | Out of Hound ey staggered Stanton. _~ A penny, cap'n!” whined the fellow in the \ comichooks.com