The Wasp — 1896 — page 322: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily **advertising with a serialized story**. The left column continues "Private Theatricals," a narrative about young Mr. Smith taking two ladies to San Francisco, where they attend a theater performance that ends in chaos—a bouncer shoots a pistol, people are injured, and the protagonist's party flees. The illustrations show Victorian-era figures in period dress. The story satirizes **theater-going and social pretensions** among the middle class, with emphasis on the "refined" experience turning violent and ridiculous. The right side features advertisements for patent medicines (Peruvian Bitters, Adams' Pepsin Chewing Gum, Tutti-Frutti) and whiskey—typical late-19th-century marketing reflecting no regulation of health claims.