The Wasp — 1895 — page 714: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon from *The Wasp* depicts a negotiation between two figures in an ornate interior. The gentleman on the left wears modern formal attire (pinstriped suit), while the figure on the right is dressed in 18th-century military or aristocratic costume with knee breeches and boots. The caption references "Titles Are Still Scarce and High, Though Money Is Abundant" and mentions "negotiations between the house of Marlborough and the vaults of" (text cuts off, likely a wealthy American family). This appears to satirize the Gilded Age practice of wealthy American industrialists purchasing European aristocratic titles or arranging marriages with titled nobility. The anachronistic costume contrast emphasizes the absurdity of this social climbing—old European prestige meeting new American wealth.