The Wasp — 1895 — page 736: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page combines a gossip column with period advertisements. The "Old Maid's Diary" section features a caricatured elderly woman (indicated by the exaggerated facial features in the masthead illustration) commenting on San Francisco society figures, particularly gossiping about a man named Joaquin Miller and Eastern women who visited him. The column's humor derives from cattiness about Miller's romantic life and bathing habits—suggesting he's unwilling to bathe after meeting with visitors. The satire targets both Miller's reputation and the Eastern women's supposed pretentiousness. The remainder of the page consists entirely of advertisements for local San Francisco businesses (banks, coal, restaurants, chewing gum, liquor), typical of late 19th-century magazine padding.