The Wasp, 1918 · page 32 of 330
The Wasp — 1918 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *The Wasp* satirizes how pirates and criminals of the Caribbean were becoming "respectable" and professionalizing their operations. The text mocks three specific figures—Major Deck (formerly a Barbados planter), Duval (a polite Canadian gentleman-thief), and Hellfire Hicks (an ex-shopkeeper turned criminal)—by treating their illicit enterprises with businesslike legitimacy. The satire's point: these outlaws now operate with secretaries, treasurers, and bookkeeping—they've industrialized crime into a proper "profession and science." The character James enters this criminal society and learns that wealth and respectability come through organized lawlessness, not legitimate work. The joke targets both the criminals' pretensions to legitimacy and society's willingness to accept them once they adopt corporate structures. Major Deck's wife allegedly drove him to piracy through "tantrums and flirtations"—a satirical jab at blaming women for men's moral failures.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WASP 23 —and one instantly knew, without being told in so many words, that more oe circles were open to him. There is no need to wiclie) you this society or to describe its entertainments. James lost a _ little money at play—he would have lost a great deal but for his menacing eye—and heard many strange stories. He heard anecdotes of the pirates, privateers, and other doubtful characters of that time and those seas—of Major Deck, who had been a respectable planter in Barbados twelve months ago ; of Duval, who was a Canadian gentleman and very polite in his methods of taking life and property.; of Hellfire Hicks, who had once been a shopkeeper in one of the islands. | James was interested, and asked many questions. _ “It’s the way to make money,” said one of the company. “It’s a profession and a _ science. It calls for brains and courage. They all have _ their agents everywhere. Hicks keeps his books like any honest merchant, I’ve been told. Major Deck runs his business as a company, with a secretary, a treasurer, and goodness only knows what else. His wife drove him to it, they say, with her tantrums and her flirtations—and a comichooks.com