The Wasp — 1895 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes romantic encounters between strangers on the Oakland ferry, a popular route between San Francisco and Oakland. The illustration shows a well-dressed man and woman in an intimate conversation on the ferry's deck, with boats visible in the moonlit background. The accompanying dialogue mocks the speed of romantic attraction: the man asks if the woman believes in love at first sight, and she responds that "certainly" a hasty glance cannot reveal character flaws—implying that people fall for superficial impressions rather than true compatibility. The satire targets the ferry as a site of fleeting urban encounters where people make romantic judgments based solely on appearance, a common theme in turn-of-the-century social commentary about modern city life and its effects on courtship.