The Wasp — 1879 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "A Coasting Legend" - Part II This six-panel comic strip satirizes a winter sledding accident involving what appears to be an "old dame" (panel 1) and a crowded sleigh. The narrative follows a catastrophic toboggan run: passengers board recklessly (panels 1-2), lose control on a steep hill (panel 3), crash spectacularly in snow (panel 4), and recover with injuries (panels 5-6). The humor targets Victorian-era sledding culture and social pretension—specifically the chaos when respectable people (including what may be a pedagogue or tutor mentioned in panel 5) abandon decorum for winter recreation. The "legend" mocks both the dangerous sport and the melodramatic accounts people might tell afterward, emphasizing slapstick mishap over genteel winter entertainment.