The Wasp — 1893 — page 101: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

The text is a serialized story about Laura Willoughby, a rector's niece who married beneath her station and faced social consequences. It's not primarily political satire. The cartoon below, however, satirizes missionary work. A caricatured Indigenous person (drawn in the crude, racist style typical of 1890s publications) wears a barrel labeled "First Quality" while a well-dressed missionary preaches about "Christian religion and Christian civilization." The Indigenous figure skeptically responds that his people have "started to de World's Fair in Frisco"—suggesting that Western civilization's offerings are no better than what colonized peoples already possess or understand. The satire mocks the pretension of missionary "civilizing" efforts.