The Wasp — 1892 — page 534: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains the opening of a serialized fictional diary column rather than a political cartoon. The illustration shows a caricatured elderly woman with exaggerated features—a large nose, hump, and disheveled appearance—establishing the "Old Maid" character through visual stereotype. The narrative voice mocks spinsterhood and femininity while recounting her social embarrassments. References include spiritualist séances (popular in the era) and satirical comments about unmarried women's social status. The piece uses the common late-19th/early-20th-century comedic trope of the bitter, undesirable "old maid" to entertain readers through ridicule of single women and their perceived desperation or eccentricity. The tone is deliberately mean-spirited, reflecting period attitudes toward unmarried women.