The Wasp — 1893 — page 390: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily **advertising and business directory** for San Francisco, listing leading merchants, manufacturers, and service providers across various industries—leather belting, architectural ironwork, artificial stone, brewing, carpentry, custom clothing, and more. The left column contains **light humorous sketches and jokes** unrelated to the advertisements, including titled pieces like "Fisher-Folk," "A Timely Caress," "After a Boy Lost," "A Base Attack," "Waiting," and "Always Kicking." These appear to be comic vignettes with dialogue, typical of satirical magazines' filler content. At the bottom is an advertisement for **Ely's Cream Balm**, a patent medicine marketed as a cure for catarrh (nasal congestion), which was common advertising in period publications. The page functions primarily as a **commercial directory** rather than political satire.