The Wasp — 1896 — page 786: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a title/cover page for *The Wasp's* special San Francisco edition. The main illustration, captioned "It Must Be the Climate," depicts three fashionably dressed figures—a woman in an elaborate gown with puffed sleeves, a man in formal dark attire, and another man in a light coat. The joke references San Francisco's reputation for attracting unusual characters. The quote (attributed to "Old Maid's Diary") suggests that seeing such "manly beauty" arrivals from Boston or Spokane requires experiencing San Francisco's climate firsthand to understand why people look so different there. This appears to be gentle satire about San Francisco's cosmopolitan, fashion-forward population contrasting with more conservative East Coast or interior cities.