The Wasp — 1914 — page 14: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page from the satirical magazine *The Wasp* describes a morally damning scene: Captain Sterling, a wealthy planter from Nevis in the West Indies, has purchased 200 convicted prisoners from a British jail and is marching them to a ship called the *Good Cheer* for transport to the colonies as forced labor. The satire targets Sterling's callousness and the brutal convict transportation system. The phrase describing prisoners' varied suffering—weeping, cursing, or walking with "closed eyes and stricken faces"—emphasizes human tragedy. The character Burnham, described as cold and heartless as "a lump of stone," likely represents the merchant class profiting from human suffering. The passage condemns both the transportation system and those exploiting the vulnerable poor for colonial labor.