The Wasp — 1896 — page 181: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon depicts a domestic dispute through a visual joke about marital communication. A woman stands with arms crossed, appearing angry or frustrated, while a man faces away from her with a resigned posture. The caption reveals the satire: the wife complains she saw Mr. Howell last evening, and the husband dismisses her concerns by saying "he tells me you were with her two hours." When the wife protests, the husband responds "True; but she did all the talking." The joke mocks a common domestic frustration—a husband using a woman's chattiness as excuse or deflection for his own behavior. It's period-typical gender satire, portraying women as talkative and men as evasive in marriage, playing on late 19th/early 20th-century stereotypes about gender relations and communication.