The Wasp — 1894 — page 268: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon depicts a romantic scandal involving Polish nobility. The text identifies a "love-bill" circulating in San Francisco society about Prince Poniatowski (Polish descendant of deposed kings) and Miss Burke, an "accomplished ward of Horace Carpenter." The satire mocks high-society gossip: the couple allegedly broke their engagement, but rumors persist they'll marry anyway. The illustration shows a fashionable woman with an exaggerated, sneering expression—likely representing Miss B.S., a society figure who spreads discouraging rumors about the match while ironically drawing public attention to it. The piece lampoons both the pretension of San Francisco's elite and their hypocrisy: those claiming to discourage the romance actually fuel public fascination through whispered scandal-mongering.