The Wasp — 1894 — page 477: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon depicts a domestic scene where a woman (labeled "Unsophisticated Cook") asks her butcher about a price calculation. The butcher explains he'll charge five percent on her orders, and she questions what that means—asking if it means she'll "have a new butcher." The humor lies in the woman's deliberate obtuseness: she's feigning incomprehension of basic math to mock either butchers' price-gouging practices or women's purported numerical ignorance (a common stereotype of the era). The "Harold" character's patient explanation to the skeptical woman satirizes either merchant dishonesty or gender-based assumptions about women's mathematical abilities. The joke relies on period assumptions about both commercial practices and female education.