The Wasp — 1887 — page 252: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is primarily an **advertising page**, not a satirical cartoon page. The Wasp's masthead dominates the top, but the content below consists entirely of commercial advertisements from San Francisco businesses dated October 8, 1887. The ads include: - **Gypsy Queen Cigarettes** (prominently featured) - A photographer, tailors, boot maker, dentist, and various merchants - Liquor dealers and pharmaceutical products - Hat makers and other retailers There is **one illustration**: a man's face in the Carbolic Smoke Ball advertisement, promoting a patent medicine claiming to cure bronchitis, colds, and other ailments—typical of the era's unregulated health claims. This page reveals how 19th-century satirical magazines relied heavily on advertising revenue rather than editorial content.