The Wasp — 1891 — page 36: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon from *The Wasp* (January 10, 1891) satirizes San Francisco's boxing scene through animal caricature. The image depicts two large, brutish figures labeled "Prof. Corbett" and "Prof. Jackson" in a confrontational stance, with a tiny human figure between them labeled "Californ[ia]." The satire targets prominent boxers (likely referring to James J. Corbett, a famous heavyweight champion of that era) and their violent sport. By rendering the boxers as crude, aggressive apes threatening a diminished California, the cartoonist critiques pugilism as degrading and harmful to the state's reputation and wellbeing. The caption's threat—"If you force my poor boy into a fight you will have to deal with me!"—suggests anxieties about boxing's social influence and corrupting effects.