The Wasp — 1894 — page 430: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This Wasp cartoon satirizes San Francisco politics circa 1894, depicting a "Political Machine" as an industrial apparatus spewing smoke and operating like factory machinery. The machine produces "Revival Services" advertised by Rev. P. Crimmins and Rev. M. Kelly, suggesting these religious gatherings are cynically manufactured political tools rather than genuine spiritual events. Two well-dressed men in the foreground (likely political operatives) oversee crowds being funneled toward the revival tent. A barrel labeled "Caustic Sink" sits nearby, implying the operation produces toxic political waste. The cartoon critiques how politicians exploited religious revival meetings to manipulate voters and consolidate power through what they called a "patent" system under Colonel Dan Burns' direction.