The Wasp — 1895 — page 488: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes "Miss Lulu Wainsey" following Santa Cruz Beach's 1900 Water Carnival. The caption notes she "must be quite fatigued after the water carnival." The image shows a woman in fashionable beach attire alongside a man in swimming costume on the beach. The satire appears to target upper-class women's behavior at public social events. The term "dissipated creature" suggests moral disapproval of her participation in what was likely seen as overly casual or frivolous beach socializing. The cartoon reflects early 1900s anxieties about changing social norms—particularly women's increasing public visibility and participation in leisure activities—which conservative publications like *The Wasp* mocked through caricature and innuendo.