The Wasp — 1889 — page 93: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains satirical articles rather than cartoons. The main political content is "The Rabbit's Foot in Politics," which mocks President Cleveland's association with the superstition that a rabbit's foot brings good luck. The article describes how Cleveland lost an election after breaking a rabbit's foot taken from a Southern animat, then regained political fortune after acquiring a new one—apparently carried by various congressmen and officials as a talisman. The satire suggests that politicians' electoral success depended on absurd superstitions rather than actual policy or merit. The piece ridicules both Cleveland specifically and the broader tendency of politicians to attribute outcomes to luck rather than competence or governance. It's a sharp critique of American political culture in the 1880s.