The Wasp — April 3, 1880 — page 12: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Human Trash and their Deserts" The cartoon depicts two figures engaged in what appears to be a physical altercation or struggle. Based on the accompanying article, this illustrates a dispute in Deadwood, Dakota Territory involving a woman who boiled down her dead child's body and a man named San Francisco Louis (a transient) who had shot her father. The satire critiques both the brutal frontier conditions and the legal system's handling of such cases. The article discusses how Judge Rix and Mayor Kellogg debated whether to punish various parties involved, highlighting the chaos of frontier justice where serious crimes—infanticide, murder, desecration of remains—received inconsistent legal treatment. The cartoon's title sarcastically refers to how the frontier "deserved" such brutal inhabitants and incidents.