The Wasp — 1878 — page 107: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a 12-panel satirical story about a horse trader's deception. An old man named Buster sends a stableman to buy a "black" horse, but the liverman delivers a horse he claims is actually a "pinto" (spotted). Jack (the buyer) refuses it, calling it black. The dealer insists it's white, leading to an absurd argument where both men stubbornly deny the horse's obvious color while physically fighting over it in the rain. The satire ridicules willful dishonesty and stubbornness in commerce—specifically, how traders and buyers will deny obvious facts to win arguments or close deals. The phrase "a horse of another color" (meaning a different matter entirely) is inverted here: the entire dispute IS about the horse's actual color, highlighting how people use rhetoric to obscure simple truths.