The Wasp — July 3, 1880 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of Page 791 from *The Wasp* This page contains several brief humorous anecdotes rather than political cartoons. The pieces mock various absurdities: 1. **"A Mean Trick"** satirizes a con artist who swindles a man with a worthless hat and cheese, exploiting his gullibility through elaborate deception. 2. **"Sense Like a Horse"** ridicules a newspaper editor's violent overreaction to a rejected article submission—threatening the writer with an Arkansas pistol over a minor piece about a lost dog. 3. **"Something for the Ladies"** describes a dubious medical procedure claiming to beautify women through dangerous chemicals and heat, mocking both pseudoscientific claims and women's desperation for beauty treatments. The humor relies on exaggeration of human folly, greed, and vanity typical of *The Wasp*'s satirical style.