The Wasp — 1889 — page 80: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page from *The Wasp* contains multiple short satirical pieces and jokes rather than one unified cartoon. **The main illustration** ("Charity in a New Disguise") depicts a well-dressed man at the beach confronting a woman, with onlookers present. The dialogue suggests he's criticizing her for posing while pretending to be charitable—the satire targets performative or hypocritical charity. **The remaining pieces** are brief comic dialogues mocking various social types: a verbose speech-maker, a social climber obsessed with money, a wife blaming poor lighting for household complaints, a woman learning about fashion from newspapers, and others. The humor relies on recognizing common contemporary social pretenses—wealth anxiety, domestic complaints, false modesty—rather than specific political figures or events. It's general social satire typical of 1890s American humor magazines.