The Wasp — 1895 — page 1092: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily **advertising** for patent medicines and professional services typical of early 20th-century publications, interspersed with two small satirical cartoons. The top cartoon, titled "HE DID NOT INSPECT THEIR NOSES," depicts a "Near-sighted Parson" encountering cyclists on Sunday morning. The joke appears to mock religious hypocrisy: the parson doesn't notice the riders are enjoying worldly Saturday recreation rather than proper Sunday observance—a commentary on lax moral enforcement or selective piety. The bottom cartoon, "THE INGENIOUS SAVAGE," shows a figure using tools with fish-like efficiency, satirizing either Indigenous peoples' ingenuity or perhaps commentary on "natural" versus "civilized" approaches to labor. The advertisements—for beef extract, deafness cures, catarrh treatments, and legal services—reflect the patent medicine era's dubious health claims now considered fraudulent.