The Wasp — 1893 — page 225: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This nine-panel satirical sequence depicts a concert hall disaster. Panel 1 shows a manager proposing to borrow a piano substitute after the advertised "Grand Piano" fails to arrive. Panels 2-9 chronicle escalating chaos as an inferior instrument creates cacophony, with the bass player and pianist's performance apparently so dreadful that audience members react with visible distress and dismay. The satire targets unreliable event management and false advertising—substituting inferior goods without proper disclosure. The title "Music Hath Charms" ironically invokes the proverb about music's soothing power, while the cartoon demonstrates music's opposite effect when poorly executed. The note references Professor Strauss and a "late Wilkie Concert," suggesting this lampoons a real, notorious incident.