The Wasp — 1895 — page 1019: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes class anxiety and conspicuous consumption among the wealthy. A well-dressed woman (Miss Grabitall, per dialogue) stands before a desk clerk, insisting on "the most expensive gloves in the house." She cannot afford them but claims she can purchase "the very best now." The punchline reveals her father has recently acquired wealth from the Blythe estate distribution and, she boasts, will no longer tolerate "cheap gloves." The satire targets nouveau riche pretension—the assumption that inherited money from a legal settlement justifies immediate luxury purchases and social climbing. The cartoon mocks both the woman's status-seeking and the shallow materialism it represents, suggesting moral emptiness behind fashionable appearances.