The Wasp — 1877 — page 211: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon from *The Wasp* (April 28, 1872) mocks the supposed "improvements" to cable car conductors on San Francisco's Market Street Railway. The image shows three figures in a streetcar: a wealthy gentleman with a top hat on the left, a mechanical/robotic conductor in the center (depicted as an automaton with exaggerated features), and another man on the right. The subtitle suggests this "tool" represents a new invention meant to improve service. The satire appears to critique the dehumanization of labor—replacing actual workers with mechanical devices—or perhaps mocks the cable car system's unreliability by suggesting conductors operate like malfunctioning machines. The joke hinges on San Francisco's technological pretensions versus practical reality.