The Wasp — 1877 — page 248: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily **advertising**, not political satire. It contains business advertisements from 1890s San Francisco, including: - Shell oysters, an architect's office, breweries, a saw manufacturing company, and paint suppliers - Three prominent illustrated ads for alcohol merchants: wine/liquor dealers and a whiskey distributor - An upper-left notice to canvas advertisers, explaining *The Wasp* offers advertising opportunities The decorative ads feature Victorian-era illustrations of cherubs and classical figures—standard commercial imagery of the period, not political commentary. The only quasi-satirical element is a small boxed notice offering advertising rates to potential sponsors, framed as if addressing canvassers directly. This page demonstrates how 19th-century satirical magazines sustained themselves through commercial advertising rather than being purely editorial content.