The Wasp — 1887 — page 82: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is primarily an **advertisements page** rather than a satirical cartoon page. The masthead features ornate Victorian lettering for "The Wasp," and the page contains roughly two dozen ads for San Francisco businesses: photographers, tailors, dentists, boot makers, architects, whiskey distributors, and other services. The only illustrated content includes small **cartoon vignettes** accompanying the Napa Soda Springs advertisement (top center), showing figures saying "Eat & Grow Fat," "Oh Dear!," and "Try It!" — light humor promoting the mineral springs' health benefits as a tourist destination. The rest of the page functions as commercial space typical of 19th-century periodicals, where advertising revenue subsidized publication costs.