The Wasp — 1894 — page 423: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains two main illustrated sections paired with satirical text stories. **Left cartoon**: Depicts a hand holding a woman's corset or undergarment, illustrating a story about a tailor named Tom Saunders and his romantic/financial misadventures in San Francisco. **Right cartoon**: Shows a woman in exaggerated pose, accompanying verse critiquing female fashion and male behavior. The poem satirizes women wearing excessive satin, silk, and makeup while criticizing men who "gaze with eager and devouring eyes" at women's "nude form." The page combines gossip-column narratives with social satire typical of late 19th/early 20th-century American magazines—mocking both feminine vanity and masculine hypocrisy regarding women's appearance and morality. The humor relies on period-specific fashion and gender-role conventions readers would immediately recognize.