The Wasp — February 28, 1880 — page 5: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Gallows!!" – A Purlin for San Francisco This cartoon satirizes **Denis Kearney**, leader of the notorious Kearney class, a demagogue who used inflammatory rhetoric against Chinese immigrants and wealthy citizens. The illustration shows a man hanged from a gallows, likely representing Kearney facing consequences for his agitation. The text describes how Kearney demanded the city construct gallows to hang **Mordecai Haman** (a wealthy citizen who refused Kearney's humiliating demands). The satire mocks Kearney's violent threats and authoritarian posturing—by reversing the imagery to suggest the demagogue himself deserves hanging for his "vulgar and bloodthirsty" rhetoric. This reflects *The Wasp's* opposition to Kearney's working-class movement and its extreme anti-establishment positions.