The Wasp — 1896 — page 1078: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is **primarily a directory of San Francisco businesses** (hotels, restaurants, printing services) from what appears to be a late 19th-century issue of *The Wasp*. The page contains **two illustrated vignettes** with accompanying satirical text: 1. **"Sympathetic"** - depicts fashionable women gossiping about weddings, with commentary mocking how people cry at weddings despite most marriages being unhappy ("Most don't-let—Because most of them have been married themselves"). 2. **"Prejudiced in His Own Favor"** - shows a man refusing a woman's romantic advances, satirizing male presumption and self-interest in relationships. Both cartoons mock **Victorian courtship and marriage conventions**, particularly the gap between sentimental public displays and private relationship realities. The satire targets hypocrisy in romantic social rituals among the upper classes.