The Wasp — 1895 — page 891: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes the social pretensions and marital attitudes of the wealthy elite. The caption presents a joke where Mr. Broker asks Mrs. Finchspiff about "the most trying time of life," and she responds that it's the period between marriage and divorce—suggesting that among "swagger society" (the fashionable upper class), divorce is expected and normalized. The visual contrast emphasizes the satire: three men on bicycles represent athletic, carefree activity, while an elegantly dressed couple on the right embody stiff formality. The joke mocks how wealthy socialites treat marriage as temporary and divorce as inevitable, reflecting early-20th-century anxieties about changing gender roles and the loosening of marital bonds among the affluent.