The Wasp — 1894 — page 401: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily **editorial commentary and gossip** rather than political cartoons. The main illustrated content is a sketch titled "FORCE OF HABIT" depicting a conversation between two fashionable women and a man on horseback about purchasing a bicycle—likely satirizing the bicycle craze of the 1890s and the absurdity of using equestrian language ("whip and spurs") for a newfangled machine. The text columns contain social criticism targeting various figures: Dick McDonald (a newspaper rival), the Murphy family's legal disputes, Miss Ellen Gould (a wealthy heiress), and Mrs. Shattuck (involved in a murder case). The satirical tone mocks hypocrisy, crime, and society's moral contradictions rather than partisan politics.