The Wasp — 1876 — page 39: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This six-panel satirical sequence from *The Wasp* (August 26, 1876) depicts a man's escalating drunken mishaps with his dog. The title character "Mr. Sharsee" appears to be a caricatured figure whose name itself may be a pun or reference unclear to modern readers. The panels show: holding a bottle while the dog watches; the bottle falling; the man crouching in distress; him collapsed; struggling with the dog; and finally lying prone on the ground. The cartoon satirizes public drunkenness and its comic consequences, a common subject in 19th-century satirical magazines. The small dog serves as a silent, judgmental observer throughout the man's degradation—likely the "disappointment" of the title.