The Wasp — 1890 — page 280: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon ridicules Mayor Pond of San Francisco, who apparently kept a pig in leisurely conditions at his California Street residence. The satire mocks the Mayor's hypocrisy: he publicly claims concern for the poor and unemployed working-class neighbors, yet privately maintains this pampered pig. The visitor's exclamation—calling the pig by its full name "Bingy"—suggests absurdist humor about the creature's elevated status. The accompanying text emphasizes the contradiction: the pig enjoys comfortable leisure while Pond pontificates about public business. The joke targets Pond's pretentious, disconnected governance and the gap between his public messaging about serving common people and his private indulgences. This was typical *Wasp* content: San Francisco political mockery through personal scandal and ironic detail.