The Wasp — 1890 — page 87: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains three satirical comic sequences mocking Victorian social pretensions and marital dynamics. **"Little Bo Peep"** (left): Satirizes a dismissive upper-class mother who leaves her sick child with servants, indifferent to the child's suffering. The joke attacks wealthy parents' neglect of their children's welfare. **"On His Clothes"** (center): A wife accuses her husband of drinking and infidelity. The humor derives from the husband's absurd excuse—he was seated with an "Internal Revenue Collector"—suggesting his encounter with a tax official was so unpleasant it drove him to drink. **"He Shouldn't Wait"** and **"Thoughtless Definition"** (bottom): Domestic humor mocking a father's obliviousness and a student's flippant definition of "fable" to his tutor. The page also includes advertisements for patent medicines and local Santa Cruz attractions, typical of period satirical magazines.