The Wasp — 1878 — page 336: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains two illustrated vignettes labeled "Gossip" and "How She Fixed Him," featuring conversations between pairs of figures drawn in Victorian caricature style. The "Gossip" section depicts two women in period dress discussing a farmer and his mule—apparently critiquing whether the farmer's new team animal is suitable or well-trained. The dialogue satirizes rural life and practical concerns about working animals. "How She Fixed Him" shows a young couple discussing cooking, with the woman deflecting the man's criticism of her cooking by claiming she's improving, ultimately revealing she baked a wedding cake—suggesting she has larger domestic ambitions. The illustrations mock middle and working-class domestic life through exaggerated facial features and dialect-heavy dialogue typical of 19th-century American satirical humor.