The Wasp — 1887 — page 477: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This illustrated poem depicts a vagrant or hobo figure blowing a bugle from what appears to be a rooftop or elevated perch. The accompanying verse celebrates the resourcefulness and defiant spirit of society's poorest members—"tramps"—who survive through wit and cunning despite their hardships. The poem mocks law enforcement and authority while celebrating the tramp's ability to outwit them ("To fill the chain gang, / bah! free, country-loving"). It appears to be satirizing both the desperation of impoverished Americans and the social systems that criminalized vagrancy. The "bugle call" suggests organizing the downtrodden into collective resistance or solidarity against their circumstances and those who exploit them.