The Wasp — 1892 — page 378: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains three distinct sections: **Left illustration**: A sketch of a woman in Victorian dress accompanying a poem "Dot Make Me Shwear a Shwear" (written for The Wasp). The woman's exaggerated posture and the dialect humor suggest satire of affectation or romantic melodrama common to period literature. **Center article**: "Banking Pawnshops" critiques San Francisco savings banks that accept large deposits, functioning as de facto pawnshops. The satire targets how these institutions exploit poor depositors and concentrate market power, distorting real estate values while claiming to serve the working class. **Right section**: Two sketches accompanying sonnets titled "The Bride" and "The Bachelor," likely satirizing romantic idealization or marital conventions through contrasting feminine and masculine figures. The overall page combines social criticism with literary parody typical of 1890s satirical magazines.