The Wasp — 1877 — page 158: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily a **letters-to-the-editor section** rather than a political cartoon. The masthead illustration shows a figure writing at a desk—standard for advice columns of the era. The content consists of the magazine's responses to reader inquiries on diverse topics: lost love, financial advice, dance instruction, and social etiquette. Notable responses address matrimony ("Why don't we open a matrimonial column"), proper conduct for women, and European fashion observations. One response mocks the French practice of women exposing their breasts in corseted assemblies as "horror and disgust." Rather than satirizing specific political figures, this section humorously addresses **Victorian-era social anxieties** around courtship, propriety, and class behavior—the magazine's typical satirical domain.