The Wasp — 1896 — page 623: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily **advertising with one central cartoon** titled "A Sure Plan." The cartoon depicts two women in conversation. One woman (labeled "Mrs. Doe") wishes to keep her husband home at night; her friend suggests giving him children, which would be more effective than other remedies. The second woman responds that her husband "won't be out for a month" if he learns the doctor says she's pregnant. The satire targets **Victorian-era anxieties about marriage and reproduction**. It mocks both the assumption that children bind husbands to domestic life and the implicit joke that pregnancy itself—or its announcement—serves as an unwanted deterrent to marital relations. The surrounding content includes period advertisements for San Francisco businesses (breweries, bathhouses, bookbinders), indicating this is a local satirical publication from approximately the 1880s-1890s.