The Wasp — 1894 — page 203: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily **advertising** for San Francisco businesses (banks, insurance companies, laundries), with one central satirical cartoon titled "A Happy Reign." The cartoon depicts two fashionably dressed women in Victorian-era clothing. The dialogue suggests they are discussing a royal figure (likely Queen Victoria, given "reign" reference): **Mrs. Batavia**: "They thought the world of each other. He reigned in her heart and she reigned in his." **Mr. Batavia**: "And they didn't know enough to go in when it reigned." The satire is a **pun on the word "reign/rain"**—mocking the couple's romantic delusions by suggesting they were so absorbed in their emotional attachment they failed to notice actual rainfall and get indoors. It's gentle social humor about love-struck impracticality.