The Wasp — 1890 — page 40: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily a **directory of hotels and tourist accommodations** along the Pacific Coast, with advertising for local businesses, banks, and patent medicines. The left side features **L.A. Berteling, Scientific Optician** and his patent for optical instruments. The decorative illustrations are **generic period cartoons** showing a man with optical equipment and another figure, likely meant to humorously advertise Berteling's optician services. Below is an advertisement for **Pennyroyal Pills** (a dubious patent medicine) and the **First National Bank**. This is essentially a **commercial directory page disguised as editorial content**—typical of 19th-century magazines that blurred advertising and journalism. The cartoons serve primarily as decorative filler rather than political satire.