The Wasp — 1893 — page 274: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This 1893 *Wasp* cartoon satirizes California political corruption. The scene depicts a violent confrontation at the White House between excited Washington citizens and what appears to be California office-seekers—politicians traveling to Washington to pursue federal appointments. The policeman's dialogue reveals the joke: he dismisses the chaos as routine, noting that California's "colony of office-seekers" regularly causes such disturbances while "interviewing the latest candidate for the Collectorship." The implication is that California politicians are so persistently aggressive and corrupt in pursuing patronage positions that Washington has become desensitized to their violence and chaos. The cartoon mocks both California's political culture as unusually corrupt and Washington's passive acceptance of it.