The Wasp — 1894 — page 31: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

**Left cartoon:** Caricatures Insurance Commissioner J.N.E. Wilson surrounded by floating papers labeled "CLAIMS." The accompanying verse mocks him as a "practitioner" accused of graft, suggesting his office mishandles or profits from insurance claims—a common corruption allegation against Gilded Age bureaucrats. **Right section:** "Those Turkish Dancers" satirizes the moral panic over "Turkish" belly-dancing exhibitions. Characters debate whether to suppress the shows as "immoral." The humor targets Victorian prudishness and the Society for Suppression of Vice, lampooning both the dancers themselves and the reformers attempting to ban them. **Bottom:** "The Secret of the Bath-Tub" recounts an anecdote about a French landlady's chaotic bathing experience—likely trivial domestic humor typical of magazine filler content.