The Wasp, 1918 · page 298 of 330
The Wasp — 1918 — page 298: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is **not a political cartoon** but rather prose fiction—likely a serialized story running in *The Wasp* satirical magazine. It depicts a melodramatic plot involving murder and moral complications. **The narrative**: A man named Stanton has been killed (apparently by James Burnham). His widow, Kitty, accepts the official story of a drunken brawl but fears Burnham may now target her lover, Bob Willis. Burnham has given her money and diamonds—gifts she enjoys but suspects come with sinister intent. **The tension**: Kitty is paralyzed by conflicting concerns: her attraction to Willis's money/gifts versus fear of Burnham's violence, and uncertainty about Willis's piracy connections and whether the valuables originated from him. This appears to be **serialized entertainment fiction** rather than satire, using contemporary London criminal underworld themes popular in 19th-century penny dreadfuls and sensational journalism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WASP 289 it and stumped away—and that quarter of London knew him no more. : When Stanton’s corpse was found at sunrise _ the Landlord of the ‘‘ Spotted Dog” indentified it and gave its address to the authorities. So it was carried off, and presented to the widow. Kitty screamed and fainted. When she came out of her swoon she accepted the coroner’s opinion that Stanton had come by his death in a drunken brawl. He had a reputation for drunkenness, it seems. : Kitty voiced no opinion of her own. She paid a tallow-faced man in rusty black the sum of thirty shillings to take the remains away and give them decent burial. Kitty did not send for Willis immediately, _ for she was afraid. James Burnham had killed her husband. Might he not kill her lover? __ He had promised not to hurt Bob, ’tis true; but she was afraid. Why had he given money - and diamonds to her if he did not mean harm to Willis ? And what of this money For her own part, she was glad of it; but what would Bob Willis say to it? She knew nothing of her brother’s ' fate or career as a pirate; but she felt sure that | the gold and stones had not come from him. Comichooks.com