The Wasp — 1892 — page 98: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This appears to be a serialized humor column rather than a political cartoon. The illustration shows a woman in Victorian dress, titled "The Old Maid's Diary." The text recounts a spinster's domestic frustrations and social observations. She complains about unsentimental sheet music, fraudulent "doctors" in the city, and an encounter with a disagreeable neighbor named Mrs. Chuggs who accused her of alienating the woman's husband. The narrator also describes purchasing an oddly-cut garment and reflects on women's roles in managing households and affecting others' emotions. The satire targets late 19th-century attitudes toward unmarried women, domestic life, matrimonial friction, and the pretensions of urban con artists and quack medical practitioners. It reflects period anxieties about single women and marriage.