The Wasp — 1890 — page 264: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon depicts a "Striking Molder" (a factory worker on strike) approaching an "Iroquois Chief" with his family, asking for sympathy and meal tickets during a labor dispute. The joke relies on racial and class satire: the cartoon presents the Indigenous chief as more financially secure than the impoverished striker, inverting typical hierarchies. The "Democratic tickets" the chief mentions likely reference political patronage—suggesting Democratic politicians offer only empty political favors rather than genuine economic relief to working people. The "Irish Foundry" building in the background contextualizes this as labor unrest in industrial San Francisco. The satire simultaneously mocks both striking workers' desperation and Democratic political promises, suggesting neither offers real solutions to working-class poverty.