The Wasp — 1891 — page 183: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical comic contrasts San Francisco's lawless Gold Rush past with its supposedly civilized present. The narrative shows the city's "improvement": **Past (left panels):** Thieves hang from trees; miners toil for gold in harsh conditions; natural landscape dominates. **Present (right panels):** A "murderer" is treated respectfully at dinner; a statue of a civic figure stands in the city; buildings replace wilderness; gambling, church fairs, and refined crime replace crude robbers. The satire's bitter point: San Francisco hasn't actually improved morally—it's simply dressed up its vices in respectability. Murderers and gamblers now operate within polite society rather than as obvious outlaws. The final caption—"See the artistic way in which we are now robbed!"—makes explicit that crime persists, merely repackaged as civilization.