The Wasp — 1894 — page 374: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page satirizes a San Francisco journalist named **McEwen**, described as an aspiring "future moralist." The text recounts McEwen's career trajectory from ambitious reporter to scandal-plagued editor. The top cartoon shows McEwen being ejected from the "Examiner" office—satirizing his professional expulsion. The bottom illustration, captioned "The Moralist Takes the Keeley Cure," depicts him receiving treatment at a Keeley Institute (a real establishment that claimed to cure alcoholism and other addictions). The satire's point: McEwen, who positioned himself as morally superior and published scandals about others, was himself disgraced and required institutional "cure." The Keeley reference suggests alcoholism or similar vices undermined his sanctimonious posturing—a classic satirical reversal of the hypocrite exposed.