The Wasp, 1918 · page 31 of 330
The Wasp — 1918 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains prose fiction rather than a political cartoon. It describes James Burnham, a gentleman who abandons the sugar trade after two days, subsequently falling into disreputable company—specifically associating with "broken gentlemen" and "roistering blades" (dissolute, drunken men). The passage introduces Peter Queery, a manipulative character of about forty who affects superiority and importance while cultivating false intimacy with Burnham. The satire targets social pretense: Queery flatters Burnham while maintaining patronizing distance from their worthless companions, yet paradoxically claims to enjoy their company. The humor lies in exposing Queery's performative gentility and artificial civility masking opportunism—he positions himself above his reckless friends while remaining among them, the classic con-man pose. The text satirizes both social climbing and false friendship in 19th-century society.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
22 THE WASP at the end of that brief period of two nights and _ two days, the decision was mutual that James Burnham, Esq., was not designed by nature for the sugar-exporting trade. James left the merchant’s establishment with all his guineas intact and soon fell among gentlemen who had © no dealings with either Bibles or ledgers. Mr. Peter Queery, one of Burnham’s new companions, was a man of about forty years of _age, with a hard head and the most confiding - manners in the world. He was a person of ‘importance and substance—by his own telling, at least. His dress was always as accurate and rich as the climate permitted with any degree of comfort’; his words were invariably polite . and well-chosen ; and he shone in that company of roistering blades—they were broken gentle- men, for the most para) an air of kindly superiority. From the very first his manner‘toward James Burnham was markedly considerate and intimate. This was subtly flattering, as if he saw and acknowledged the difference between Burnham and himself and their jovial but worthless. companions. And yet there was nothing pedantic about him. He enjoyed the society of these reckless, good-natured, useless fellows, he said » icomichooks:com) |