The Wasp — 1889 — page 32: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains several unrelated comic sketches and dialogues: **"Trying to Make Ends Meet"** depicts a poorly-dressed scholar (Professor Dryasdust) confronting well-dressed figures, satirizing academic poverty versus society's wealth. **"She Was Padded"** is a brief dialogue joke about padding in women's clothing, a common Victorian-era fashion satire. **"A Losing Game"** shows Jack Dazzle at 2 o'clock A.M., apparently gambling or in financial trouble ("Been droppin' nickels"). **"A Twisted Maxim"** offers social commentary comparing women's practical dress during rain to the fashionable attire of Huldah and Jane, mocking women's impractical fashion choices. The sketches target academic underemployment, women's fashion, gambling/debt, and gender-based social expectations—typical late 19th-century American satirical concerns.