The Wasp — 1889 — page 260: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

The main illustration titled "END OF THE SEASON" depicts two figures in water—likely a satirical commentary on summer's conclusion. The accompanying text sections include dialogue-based humor, including "AN INDIGNATION MEETING" and "A PESSIMIST," which appear to be short comedic sketches mocking various social types. The sketches mock pretension and hypocrisy through character exchanges: a wife nagging her husband about medicine, a gentleman-lodger complaining about a dog's noise, and a critic dismissing a poet's commercial prospects. These are typical late 19th-century *Wasp* satirical targets—marital discord, class tensions, artistic pretension, and social climbing. The broader point seems to be gentle mockery of recognizable Victorian social situations and personality types rather than specific political figures, focusing on domestic and cultural absurdities of the era.