The Wasp — March 12, 1880 — page 4: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of "The Illustrated Wasp" Page 547 This page contains two distinct sections: a lengthy political article titled "The Big Brother and the Bully" attacking the treatment of workers and the poor, and a separate poem titled "The Charge of the 600" (a satirical reference to Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade"). The main article criticizes wealthy employers and political figures for exploiting laborers, particularly immigrants and women, while maintaining hypocritical moral standards. The piece accuses them of reducing wages, forcing workers into poverty, and using class status to avoid accountability. "The Charge of the 600" appears to mock San Francisco's police or civic authorities through military parody. The page is primarily textual satire rather than illustrated cartoons, using sarcasm and political commentary to critique economic inequality and labor exploitation in late 19th-century America.