The Wasp — 1896 — page 61: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily **advertising and business directory** for San Francisco, with one central illustration titled "HE RAISED IT." The cartoon depicts a man in a window during what appears to be an emergency—his clothes are bundled up, suggesting a fire or disaster. The accompanying text describes a financial success story: a man who started with twenty dollars and a year later was worth five thousand dollars, having read about another man who started with a twelve-dollar check and made fifteen million. The "raising it" pun likely refers to both the man raising his possessions from a window during crisis **and** the broader theme of raising one's financial status through shrewd business practices—a common satirical subject in Gilded Age magazines mocking both wealth-building narratives and materialism.