The Wasp — 1891 — page 232: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon mocks artificial rain-making schemes—a real phenomenon of the 1890s where promoters claimed they could manufacture rainfall. The caricatured figure (likely representing a rain-making charlatan or promoter) holds a smoking bottle labeled "Frank Melbourne's Mayhem," referencing Frank Melbourne, a famous contemporary rain-making fraudster. He operates crude equipment surrounded by containers marked "Acid," "P.N. Kansas," and other chemicals. The caption's joke suggests these con artists are as fake as July Fourth fireworks—they produce "pop-guns and gas jugs" rather than actual rain. Meanwhile, desperate settlers in Texas await the promised downpour. The cartoon ridicules both the absurd pseudoscience and the gullibility of farmers desperate for drought relief who fell for such schemes.