The Wasp — 1894 — page 130: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes hotel accommodation shortages in San Francisco. An elderly man seeks a room at what appears to be a bathhouse or hotel. The courteous attendant promises him space will open up, adding that "there will be more as plenty place in von moment"—a caricatured foreign accent suggesting an immigrant proprietor. The humor derives from the attendant's crude suggestion: he'll have a room available once current guests vacate, implying they might die soon ("dot lady vill not last long, I tinks"). The satire targets both overcrowded San Francisco accommodations during this period and mocks immigrant hotel operators through exaggerated dialect humor, a common comedic device of 1890s American satire.