The Wasp — 1892 — page 279: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains two separate pieces: **"Hawk Instead of Pigeon"** (a satirical story about a deceptive financier called "the Baron") and **"The Keeley Cure"** (a humorous poem). The Baron story mocks a smooth-talking con artist who posed as a wealthy European nobleman in San Francisco. He duped investors and society figures through charm and fabricated credentials before being exposed. The satire targets the gullibility of wealthy San Franciscans and critiques their susceptibility to continental pretense and elaborate fraud schemes. "The Keeley Cure" is a drinking song about the Keeley Institute, a real Victorian-era addiction treatment facility, suggesting alcohol was cheaper than the cure itself—dark humor about substance abuse remedies. The page primarily contains text rather than visual cartoons.