The Wasp, 1918 · page 86 of 330
The Wasp — 1918 — page 86: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains no cartoon or illustration—it's prose text from a serialized story within *The Wasp* magazine. The narrative concerns James Burnham, who has returned from western adventures and is recounting his experiences to others after a woman named Elizabeth has collapsed on sand. The passage highlights Burnham's modest dishonesty: he exaggerates the money stolen by his "false friend" Queery (from 500 to 1,500 guineas) and conceals his misadventures from worried parents. The narrator treats this sympathetically as youthful vanity rather than serious deception. Without additional context or illustrations on this specific page, the satirical target remains unclear—whether *The Wasp* ridicules Burnham's character, colonial ambitions, or contemporary social attitudes toward financial failure and family reputation. The text alone suggests a serialized fiction rather than direct political satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WASP if James Burnham’s story was a long one, and the latter part of it contained much! truth. From the time of his departure from Kingston with his false friend Queery to the moment of. “his seeing Elizabeth fall unconscious on the sand, he told his adventures as they had actually . “happened. He spoke modestly, though he taised the sum of the money which had been given ‘to him by the baronet, and taken from him by Mr. Jueery, from five hundred guineas to fifteen hundred guineas. There was no great harm in this, perhaps. A natural, youthful’ vanity and pride of place would account for a mild* deception of the kind. Furthermore, it appeared that he had encountered a great deal of difficulty in persuad- ing his father to allow him to leave England and seek a career in the west. His first venture _ was lost, and his pride would not permit of his drawing again on his father within the year; ‘but he had funds of his own, derived from the Bs “estate of a maternal great-aunt. He would send ‘a letter to his agents by the next home-bound | vessel. He would also communicate with_ his parents, though he was reluctant to cause them ‘worry and anxiety with a tale of his misadven- tures ; and so on, and soon. comichbooks.com