The Wasp — 1889 — page 379: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes penny-pinching frugality taken to absurd extremes. The scene depicts a Chicago streetcar passenger, "Jobbie," who has become obsessed with saving trivial amounts of money. He boasts of economizing by getting shaved for five cents at Lake View (versus ten cents elsewhere), then spending the savings on streetcar fare—negating the savings entirely. The joke mocks middle-class anxieties about financial management and the self-deluding logic of false economy: spending money to save money, or congratulating oneself on minor savings while remaining fundamentally wasteful. The dialogue reveals Jobbie's pride in his "cleverness" despite his obvious foolishness, satirizing misguided notions of thriftiness common among ordinary working men of the era.