The Wasp — October 11, 1879 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Kaivee Getur" (A Cup of Coffee) This satirical piece mocks San Francisco's pretentious coffee culture. The text describes visiting a fancy coffee shop on Eddy Street, where the narrator and companions encounter absurdly oversized coffee cups and an affected waiter. The satire targets the affectation of San Francisco society—people adopting cosmopolitan airs by referencing exotic coffee origins (Mocha, Alexandria, Constantinople) while paradoxically serving enormous, vulgar portions in what amounts to a "wash-tub." The cartoons show working-class figures amid the absurdity, emphasizing the contrast between pretension and reality. The joke: San Francisco's elite fashion themselves sophisticated through imported coffee culture, yet their execution remains crude and laughable. It's social commentary on class aspiration and the gap between cosmopolitan pretense and local reality.