The Wasp — 1893 — page 229: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page presents humorous vignettes titled "A Future Experience" and "A Brave Boy." The sketches mock Victorian-era conversations and social pretensions. The top section ("A Future Experience") satirizes a man's grandiose claims about working on an invention to make his fortune, while his wife has sent their maid to Chicago to learn it. The joke targets male boasting and the irony that his wife is more practical. "A Brave Boy" depicts a mother forcing pudding on her reluctant son (Tommy), with household staff gossiping about various social matters—including fashion choices, French passion in literature, and a deceased "old man." The scattered cartoon sketches around the page illustrate these dialogues with exaggerated character expressions. The humor relies on recognizing common Victorian domestic situations and social anxieties about propriety, wealth-seeking, and class relations.