The Wasp — 1891 — page 490: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily **advertising and filler content** rather than political satire. The main cartoon, titled "Useful Pets," depicts two men in conversation with the caption: "I say, Jack, what makes your wife keep so many pets?" Answer: "Well, you see, she does her own cooking and she has to have some one around the house who will eat what she cooks." **The joke**: This is a domestic humor gag mocking wives' cooking abilities—a common trope of the era. The "useful pets" ironically means having animals around to consume inedible food, implying the wife's cooking is so bad only animals will eat it. The remainder of the page consists of **advertisements** (typewriters, tailors, furniture, patent medicines) and **philosophical quotations** on various topics, typical of satirical magazines' filler material.