The Wasp — 1894 — page 209: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

The top cartoon shows a man in formal attire gesturing dramatically while a woman sits, with the caption "So the Murphy will have been broken, George, and the case is closed." The dialogue—"Yes, into seven parts" and "No, a part for each lawyer"—satirizes how lawyers fragment cases into billable segments, each claiming a portion of damages. This mocks the legal profession's incentive to complicate settlements for profit. The bottom cartoon depicts a figure at a desk surrounded by ledgers, apparently napping or distracted. "The Bookkeeper Takes a Day Off" humorously suggests that accounting work is so tedious and mechanical that even brief absences feel necessary—a commentary on the monotony and drudgery of clerical labor in the 1890s office environment.