The Wasp — 1895 — page 941: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This political cartoon satirizes Boss McNab (a Scottish political figure) wielding various reform tools as weapons. The central caricature shows McNab holding a "Junta Headlight" and "McNab's Patent Extinguisher," alongside labels referencing "reform" rhetoric about "free speech" and "controlled fare" (possibly gas regulation). The satire's point: McNab hypocritically claims to champion democratic reforms while actually using authoritarian tactics to suppress opposition—the "extinguisher" literally extinguishing dissent. The accompanying poem "A Democratic Paradox" reinforces this irony about corrupt politicians who weaponize reform language. The battle depicted appears to involve local San Francisco political factions (Buckley Cohorts and the Junta). The tools are labeled as inventions, mocking McNab's self-aggrandizing "solutions" as mere propaganda.