The Wasp — 1896 — page 252: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily **advertising** for San Francisco businesses (hotels, restaurants, bicycles, dental services) typical of late 19th/early 20th-century trade publications. The single cartoon titled **"Wifely Devotion"** depicts a fashionably-dressed woman and a well-dressed man in conversation. The caption reads: "You do look nice in that dress; but it cost me a heap of money. Mrs. Bacon—'Never mind, dear, what do I care for money when it's a question of pleasing you?'" The satire targets **marital financial dynamics and female spending habits**—a common theme in period humor. The wife's feigned concern for pleasing her husband masks her actual focus on expensive clothing purchases. The joke relies on the era's stereotype of wives as extravagant spenders indifferent to household budgets, presenting her declaration of selflessness as transparently insincere.