The Wasp — 1895 — page 681: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily **advertising content** rather than political satire or comics. It features: - A **"Buy-Cycles" directory** listing bicycle dealers and agents throughout San Francisco - A **central illustration** showing two fashionably-dressed women in elaborate late-Victorian/Edwardian gowns, with one asking "what present will bring me tonight" and the other responding "Bicycles—what makes you expect that it your birthday?" The caption reads "Reasonable Expectation." This illustration uses gentle satire about **bicycles as fashionable gifts** during the cycling craze of the 1890s, when bicycles became symbols of modern femininity and independence. The joke targets the era's expectation that wealthy women would receive luxury goods like bicycles. The remainder of the page contains local San Francisco business advertisements for fire equipment, laundries, artificial stone, and food products.