The Wasp — 1892 — page 467: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page satirizes unsanitary urban conditions and food production through six vignettes labeled "Industrial Exhibits." Each scene mocks the contrast between advertised purity and actual filth: 1. A candyman attracts flies with an open storefront display 2. A tomato-man (unclear reference) surrounded by birds 3. A family boiling trash in a pot as "hash-factory" 4. A milkman's contaminated operation with visible filth and "Paris plaster" (adulterant) 5. A sausage artist working amid refuse 6. A "Scarecrow Butter" maker in equally squalid conditions The satire targets food adulteration and poor sanitation practices common in late 19th/early 20th-century urban America. These "exhibits" suggest such dirty operations should be publicly displayed to expose food industry fraud and contamination that endangered public health.