The Wasp — 1890 — page 98: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page combines literary criticism with advertisements and humor columns. The left column critiques California's literary scene, mocking cheap pseudoliterary magazines and derivative writers who moved to San Francisco seeking fame. It names real figures like Bret Harte and Joaquin Miller, suggesting they attracted mediocre imitators. The satire targets pretentious writers who produce shallow work while claiming artistic merit. The center illustrations appear to be generic comic vignettes accompanying humorous dialogue about hats, grandfathers, and mistaken identity—typical period humor with no apparent political content. The right side features an advertisement for "Ideal Fait Tooth Polisher" and a humor column where "Blobs" (likely an editor persona) exchanges witty insults with readers, mocking someone's editorial abilities in a contemporary publication. Overall, this targets California's literary pretension and mediocrity.