The Wasp — 1890 — page 479: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains literary content rather than political cartoons. The main pieces are: **"Famine at the Butte"** — A dialect poem about frontier hardship, depicting starving miners or settlers resorting to eating unpalatable food (licker, mustard, benzine, camp-fire gum, arnica, bay rum). The humor relies on exaggerated desperation and crude frontier conditions. **"The Christmas Markets"** by Francis E. Sheldon — An essay praising California's agricultural abundance and Christmas produce availability. It contrasts California's generosity with Eastern scarcity, celebrating local strawberries, asparagus, and other fruits as distinctly Californian advantages. **Portrait labeled "Fancy"** — Appears at top right; identity unclear from the image alone. The content emphasizes California regional identity and satirizes frontier deprivation versus civilized abundance.