The Wasp — 1895 — page 667: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a satirical museum exhibit display mocking a famous racehorse named "Rey del Skate" (King of Skate). The plaque identifies the horse's pedigree humorously: sired by "Whiteheart McCarthy's Pavin'cure" and "Damned by Every Man Who Attended the Bay District Race." The joke appears to target a specific horse racing scandal or controversial event at San Francisco's Bay District racetrack. The cartoon presents the horse as a museum specimen—treating a living racing animal as a historical artifact—to ridicule the event's notoriety. The well-dressed visitors examining the horse include what appear to be society figures and a woman in fashionable dress, suggesting this mocks the social class that frequented horse racing. The overall satire critiques both the racing world and public fascination with scandal.