The Wasp — 1894 — page 236: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon depicts a scene at the "Great International Mid-Winter Fair Hashery"—a pun on a low-quality eating establishment. A waiter holds a lunch menu displaying inflated prices (totaling $21.85) while two well-dressed patrons in fashionable winter clothing examine it with apparent dismay or skepticism. The satire targets the fair's food vendors, who are gouging visitors with exorbitant prices for poor-quality meals under the guise of a legitimate restaurant. The term "hashery" (hash house) was period slang for cheap diners, making the elaborate framing of this stall ironically pretentious. The cartoon mocks both the vendors' greed and fairgoers' exploitation during San Francisco's 1894 mid-winter fair.