The Wasp — 1890 — page 56: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page from *The Wasp* contains satirical short fiction rather than political cartoons. The stories mock various social types: fortune-tellers exploiting the poor ("Wanted a Good One"), wealthy families pretending poverty ("Those Bonds"), and financial speculation involving Russian wheat crops and English securities. "A Realistic Performance" satirizes family melodrama—an older man returning home discovers his daughter has run away to perform in amateur theatricals, which he considers disreputable. The satire targets both the father's harsh moralism and the daughter's theatrical pretensions. The remaining sections include domestic humor about fashion, political betting, and misunderstandings about European travel costs. The overall tone mocks middle-class pretension, financial anxiety, and Victorian social propriety through conversational vignettes rather than visual caricature.