The Wasp — 1877 — page 257: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This multi-panel illustration satirizes the contrast between wealthy industrialists and working-class people during America's industrial era. The top scene shows well-dressed businessmen and officials at an outdoor industrial site with machinery, appearing to discuss or profit from industry. The bottom panel depicts a domestic interior where a working-class family sits around a table—suggesting poverty or financial hardship despite industrial prosperity. The harbor scene at the bottom likely represents trade and commerce enriching the wealthy while ordinary workers struggle. The title "The Industrial Question" references debates about labor conditions, wealth inequality, and whether industrial growth benefited average Americans or primarily enriched factory owners and capitalists. The satire critiques this disparity between industrial wealth and working-class suffering.