The Wasp — 1891 — page 173: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily **advertisements** for San Francisco businesses (liquor dealers, pianos, shipping merchants, etc.), typical of late 19th-century magazines. The main **cartoon** shows two figures in an interior scene. The caption "ABOUT THE IDEA" frames a dialogue between what appears to be a woman and man discussing church attendance and social appearances. The accompanying poem, "THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR" by Walt Whitman, uses metaphorical language about a mysterious late-night caller. The satire appears to target **hypocrisy regarding gender and social propriety**—the joke seems to be about the gap between what women claim to do (attend church for respectable reasons) versus unstated motives, and a man's arrival suggesting illicit activity. The tone is cynical about Victorian morality and courtship conventions.