The Wasp — 1894 — page 230: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily **advertising** (saloons, medical products, laundries, perfumery), with one central cartoon titled "That Bathtub." The cartoon depicts a woman relaxing in an ornate bathtub while a man peers in. The accompanying dialogue shows Mrs. Diggs complaining that her husband Freddy Gebhard presented his fiancée Miss Morris with a $5,000 silver bathtub—described as wasteful extravagance. The joke satirizes **wealthy men's excessive spending on their romantic interests**, particularly the absurdity of gifting luxury bathroom fixtures as tokens of affection. The reference to "Freddy Gebhard" suggests a real society figure whose romantic scandals provided material for satirical commentary on Gilded Age excess and questionable morality among the wealthy.