The Wasp — 1877 — page 242: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical page from *The Wasp* depicts absurd scenarios as social commentary. The top panels show fantastical scenes—including demons or devils appearing before authority figures and a military official confronted by impossible sights—labeled "It is impossible to rule the Church among." The lower panels feature what appears to be political or business figures at desks conducting dubious transactions, with references to "ballot box" manipulation and sketches of hands exchanging items or documents, suggesting corruption. The overall theme, titled "Impossible Occurrences," appears to sarcastically comment on political corruption, electoral fraud, and institutional malfeasance that the cartoonist treats as implausibly "impossible" while obviously depicting them as commonplace realities of governance and power in America.